House of Commons Commission

Members' Constituency Work

John Spellar: To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the House of Commons Commission, whether the Commission is taking steps to enable retiring or defeated hon. Members to legally transfer their casework files to their successors.

Sir Charles Walker: Individual Members of Parliament (MPs) are data controllers and therefore are subject to the Data Protection Act 2018.For the processing of non-sensitive personal data in relation to casework, Members can usually rely on the implied consent of a constituent.There are additional protections for processing “special category” data because of its sensitivity. This type of data includes information revealing a person’s racial origin, ethnic origin, health details, sexual orientation, and political and philosophical beliefs.For MPs, paragraphs 23 and 24 of Schedule 1 of the 2018 Act have two main functions that apply when a constituent has contacted them:Paragraph 23 sets out when a Member of Parliament (or someone acting with their authority) can process certain “special category” data about an individual, in the course of the Member’s “functions as a representative” (e.g. constituency casework), without having to establish explicit consent.Paragraph 24 allows, but does not require, others (e.g. agencies or organisations) who are contacted by Members to disclose special category personal data to them where this is necessary to help with their functions, without having to obtain the explicit consent of the individual concerned.Whilst provisions have been made within the Act that recognise the key role Members have in supporting constituents, the legislation also ensures the continued right of an individual over their own data. This will therefore continue to mean that individuals should have the right to decide on whether their data is transferred to a members’ successor following a General Election.As the House is not responsible for personal data processed by MPs (constituents' data, staff data, etc.) this is not a matter for the Commission. However, the Commission is aware that the issue has been raised by the Chair of the Administration Committee, and the House Administration will continue to raise with others the challenges of dealing with casework data as well as support the processes as far as possible.

Department for Business and Trade

Regulation

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the Answer of 24 April 2023 to Question 180246 on Regulation, whether the term out of scope is used in her Department's electronic records to refer to items of legislation that could not be amended on red tape grounds owing to their origin being from the EU.

Kevin Hollinrake: The information requested is not held centrally and can only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Regulation

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 24 April to Question 180246 on Regulation, if she will publish any assessments made by her predecessor Department on the costs and benefits of regulations since 2010.

Kevin Hollinrake: All available regulatory impact assessments should be publicly accessible on legislation.gov.uk, alongside the relevant piece of legislation. Starting in 2016, the government has also produced annual progress reports on the business impact target (BIT) to reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens on business, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/business-impact-target-annual-reports.

Department for Business and Trade: Training

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will publish the guidance her Department uses for diversity network events which require checks on external speakers prior to inviting them to participate in Civil Service events.

Nigel Huddleston: The Department for Business and Trade has internal guidance that requests staff networks carry out due diligence on external speakers invited to speak at Civil Service events that they are hosting. It is imperative that we retain impartiality across the Civil Service, avoiding any politicised events or groups impacting on the working life of civil servants and distracting from the work delivered on Diversity and Inclusion. Our due diligence guidance is detailed on the approval form which networks must complete prior to inviting external speakers to their events.

Overseas Trade: USA

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent progress her Department has made on establishing tariff-free trade with the USA.

Nigel Huddleston: We already have a strong trading relationship with the United States worth £279 billion in 2022, and we are working to further improve the trading landscape and open market access. Over the past year we’ve removed US tariffs on UK steel and aluminium and removed the US ban on UK lamb. We’ve also been working closely on shared priorities identified at the 2022 UK-US Trade Dialogues – including digital trade and support for SMEs.

Overseas Trade: India

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what guidance her Department issues on access to UK markets for Indian businesses.

Nigel Huddleston: The Department for Business and Trade supports Indian businesses to invest in the UK by providing end-to-end project management; help with understanding the commercial opportunities through bespoke proposals and inward visits; a strategic account management offer and links with local and national partners, including Chambers of Commerce, Local Enterprise Partnerships and Mayoral Combined Authorities.Making the UK the top investment destination in Europe from India, attracting new investment into communities and helping to level-up the country including in the north-west remains one of the Department for Business and Trade’s top priorities. Together, the UK-India investment relationship supports over half a million jobs across both economies.

Treasury

Tax Avoidance

Janet Daby: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether  his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of establishing an independent inquiry into the selling of disguised remuneration schemes.

Victoria Atkins: As a result of the action the Government has taken to clamp down on marketed tax avoidance, the estimated tax gap from marketed avoidance sold primarily to individuals, has fallen from an estimated £1.5 billion in 2005-2006 to £0.4 billion in 2020-21. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) continues to implement the actions set out in its 2020 published strategy to disrupt the activities and supply chains of promoters of tax avoidance schemes. The Government brought in legislation in Finance Act 2021 (FA21) and in Finance Act 2022 (FA22) to enhance HMRC’s ability to tackle promoters and suppliers of tax avoidance schemes and reduce the scope for them to market such schemes. As announced at Spring Budget 2023, the Government is consulting on two further measures to tackle promoters of tax avoidance, which build on the changes made in FA21 and FA22. These proposals reinforce the Government’s commitment to ensure promoters face tough consequences for their actions.

Unpaid Taxes

James Murray: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2023 to Question 165453 on Taxation: Fines, how many and what proportion of the individual penalties issued by HMRC which are recorded on the National Penalty Processing System for the disclosure of tax avoidance schemes amounted to a monetary value of £100,000 to £999,999 in each of the last five years.

James Murray: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2023 to Question 165453 on Taxation: Fines, how many and what proportion of the individual penalties issued by HMRC which are recorded on the National Penalty Processing System for disclosure of tax avoidance schemes amounted to a monetary value of £10,000 to £99,999 in each of the last five years.

James Murray: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2023 to Question 165453 on Taxation: Fines, how many and what proportion of the individual penalties issued by HMRC which are recorded on the National Penalty Processing System for disclosure of tax avoidance schemes amounted to a monetary value of  £1,000 to £9,999 in each of the last five years.

Victoria Atkins: I refer the Honourable Member to the answer given to Parliamentary Question UIN 182708 on 3 May 2023 and UIN 182715 on 2 May 2023.

Bankruptcy

Theresa Villiers: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the number of people who may declare bankruptcy as a result of (a) the loan charge and (b) other related HM Revenue and Customs activity.

Victoria Atkins: I refer the Rt. Hon Member to the answer that I gave on 6 February to the Hon Members for Richmond Park, UIN 136718 and Strangford, UIN 137775.

Unpaid Taxes

James Murray: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2023 to Question 165453 on Taxation: Fines, how many and what proportion of the individual penalties issued by HMRC which are recorded on the National Penalty Processing System for serial tax avoidance regime amounted to a monetary value of £100,000 to £999,999 in each of the last five years.

James Murray: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2023 to Question 165453 on Taxation: Fines, how many and what proportion of the individual penalties issued by HMRC which are recorded on the National Penalty Processing System for the general anti-avoidance rule amounted to a monetary value of £100,000 to £999,999 in each of the last five years.

Victoria Atkins: I refer the Honourable Member to the answer given to Parliamentary Question UIN 182711 answered on 3rd May.

VAT: Software

Hywel Williams: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, following the publication by his Department in November 2021 of research on the ongoing impact of Making Tax Digital for VAT, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing (a) financial support and (b) support with adapting to new technologies to affected businesses for which the costs of that programme outweigh the benefits.

Victoria Atkins: Making Tax Digital (MTD) does not require expensive software or services to run. Lots of businesses already using modern, cloud-based accounting software saw their software upgraded for MTD free of charge. There are free software products suitable for smaller, simpler businesses, while subscription based software starts from around £10 a month. HMRC wants to ensure that MTD is straightforward, and businesses feel supported throughout. Those businesses needing help can find extensive support to help them digitally engage on the GOV.UK Website here: www.gov.uk/guidance/help-and-support-for-making-tax-digital. Independent research has confirmed that many businesses have already seen how digitisation benefits their business. The Enterprise research centre concluded that many businesses who use software to manage their accounts have over 10 per cent higher productivity. From the start, the government has been clear that businesses which genuinely cannot operate MTD will not be required to do so. Details on how to claim exemption are available on the GOV.UK website.

Taxation

Rob Butler: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the competitiveness of the UK's tax regime.

Victoria Atkins: The Chancellor is committed to ensuring the UK tax system is one of the most competitive amongst major economies. The Government has announced full expensing for investments in qualifying plant and machinery for the next three years, permanently set the Annual Investment Allowance at its highest ever level of £1 million to significantly boost business investment, and has provided further support for businesses’ R&D spending to promote the conditions for enterprise to succeed. The Chancellor will look to cut business taxes further when it is responsible to do so.

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

Hilary Benn: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will place in the Library of the House a list of companies that received payments under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

Victoria Atkins: HMRC’s legal duty of confidentiality applies to information about specific CJRS claims. The rules of the CJRS allowed HMRC to publish details of CJRS claims made between December 2020 to September 2021 for a 12-month period only.

Unpaid Taxes

James Murray: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2023 to Question 165453 on Taxation: Fines, how many of the individual penalties issued by HM Revenue and Customs which are recorded on the National Penalty Processing System for offshore Failure to Correct penalties amounted to the individual monetary value of £1,000 to £9,999 in each of the last five years.

Victoria Atkins: I refer the Honourable Member to the answer I gave to Parliamentary Question UIN 182714 on 4th May 2023.

Revenue and Customs: Telephone Services

Hilary Benn: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average waiting time was for answering phone calls by HMRC as of 27 April 2023; and what that average was in each of the last five years.

Victoria Atkins: I refer the Rt Honourable Member to the replies given to the Honourable Member for Enfield North on 24 April 2023, UIN 180553 and UIN 180557.

Unpaid Taxes

James Murray: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2023 to Question 165453 on Taxation: Fines, how many individual penalties issued by HM Revenue and Customs which are recorded on the National Penalty Processing System for Offshore Penalty: Failure to Correct amounted to the individual monetary value of £100,000 to £999,999 in each of the last five years.

Victoria Atkins: I refer the Honourable Member to the answer I gave to Parliamentary Question UIN 182714 on 4th May 2023.

Tax Avoidance

Theresa Villiers: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many businesses have been penalised for marketing or promoting schemes subject to the loan charge as of 2 May 2023.

Victoria Atkins: A key part of HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC) 2020 strategy for tackling promoters of tax avoidance schemes, such as disguised remuneration (DR) schemes that are within scope of the Loan Charge, is to change their behaviour so that they stop this activity altogether.  HMRC uses a wide range of civil and criminal measures to tackle those who promote tax avoidance. For example, Finance Acts 2021 and 2022 provided HMRC with powers to publish the details of avoidance schemes and those who promote or operate them, in order to support taxpayers in identifying these schemes so they can steer clear or exit them.  HMRC has started to issue stop notices to promoters under the Promoters of Tax Avoidance Schemes legislation. These require them to stop promoting the tax avoidance scheme specified in the notice. Penalties of up to £1 million can be issued for failure to comply. In 2022, the First-Tier Tribunal imposed a penalty in excess of £1 million on a promoter for failing to disclose a scheme under the Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes regime.  As a result of the action the Government has taken to clamp down on marketed tax avoidance, a number of major promoters have now cooperated with HMRC and have either stopped selling schemes or ceased business altogether, and the estimated tax gap from marketed avoidance sold primarily to individuals, has fallen from an estimated £1.5 billion in 2005-2006 to £0.4 billion in 2020-2021.

Small Businesses: VAT

Hywel Williams: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact on small businesses of introducing a price cap on software for Making Tax Digital for VAT.

Victoria Atkins: HMRC has worked closely with software providers so that businesses should be able to choose a product that suits both their budget and their needs. This includes some products which have been deployed specifically to support different types of sectors. There are free software products suitable for smaller, simpler businesses and subscription-based Making Tax Digital (MTD) compatible software available, but invariably, costs will differ from business to business, and are influenced by factors including size and complexity of business, degree of digital capability and cost and functionality of software solution employed.

Pensioners: Taxation

Alan Brown: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people of state pension age will start to pay tax for the first time on their pensionable income due to the freezing of the personal allowance at £12,570 following the increase of the state pension by 10.1 per cent.

Victoria Atkins: The Government is committed to ensuring that older people are able to live with the dignity and respect they deserve, and the State Pension is the foundation of state support for older people. The Personal Allowance (PA), the amount of income that each individual may receive before paying income tax is currently set at a level high enough to ensure that those pensioners whose sole income is the new State Pension or basic State Pension do not pay any income tax. The Government publish estimates of the number of income taxpayers who are above the state pension age. This is available in National Statistics Table 2.1 Number of individual income taxpayers available on GOV.UK here https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/number-of-individual-income-taxpayers-by-marginal-rate-gender-and-age.

Business: Taxation

Hywel Williams: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of costs incurred by businesses for accountancy software packages to ensure their compliance with Making Tax Digital requirements in each of the last three years.

Victoria Atkins: HMRC has worked closely with software providers so that businesses will be able to choose a product that suits both their budget and their needs. This includes some products which have been deployed specifically to support different types of sectors. There are free software products suitable for smaller, simpler businesses and subscription based Making Tax Digital (MTD) compatible software available. Costs will differ from business to business, and are influenced by factors including the size and complexity of the business, degree of digital capability, and the cost and functionality of software solution employed.

Unpaid Taxes

James Murray: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2023 to Question 165453 on Taxation: Fines, how many of the individual penalties issued by HM Revenue and Customs which are recorded on the National Penalty Processing System for offshore Failure to Correct penalties amounted to a monetary value of £10,000 to £99,999 in each of the last five years.

Victoria Atkins: I refer the Honourable Member to the answer I gave to Parliamentary Question UIN 182714 on 4th May 2023.

Oxford-Cambridge Arc

Richard Fuller: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the value for money of public spending on the Oxford-Cambridge Arc.

John Glen: The Government recognises the significant economic potential of the Oxford to Cambridge region, but also that it is constrained by poor connectivity, limited laboratory space, and high housing costs. The Spring Budget set out the Government’s commitment to East West Rail, which will unlock locally-led growth. In line with the usual process, East West Rail Company will produce an Outline Business Case ahead of an application for planning consent and the Treasury will assess the value for money of the scheme at this point.

Local Government Finance

Dr Luke Evans: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps his Department is taking to support future funding of county councils.

John Glen: At Spending Review 2021, the Government provided councils in England with £4.8 billion of new grant funding between 2022-23 and 2024-25. Recognising that inflation is higher than it was when these budgets were set, at Autumn Statement 2022, the Chancellor announced that local authorities will have access to up to an additional £2.8 billion in 2023-24 and £4.7 billion in 2024-25 for social care and other services, which is of particular benefit to county councils. The 2023-24 Local Government Finance Settlement confirmed an increase in total Core Spending Power for local authorities of 9.4%. Decisions on spending beyond 2024-25 will be taken at the next Spending Review.

Carbon Emissions

Sam Tarry: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps he is taking to support the transition to net zero.

Gareth Davies: Spending Review 2021 confirmed that since March 2021 the government will have committed a total of £30 billion of domestic investment for the green industrial revolution. Since then, the government has made new announcements that provide long-term certainty on our investment plans, including £6 billion for energy efficiency and up to £20 billion for Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage. On the 30th March the government also set out further action to deliver net zero through its Powering Up Britain publication.

Carbon Emissions: Taxation

Craig Mackinlay: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made a comparative assessment of the competitiveness of the UK's carbon taxation regime.

Gareth Davies: The UK Emissions Trading Scheme is our main carbon pricing scheme and promotes cost-effective decarbonisation by allowing businesses to cut carbon where it is cheapest to do so. The Government remains committed to supporting the competitiveness of UK sectors. This is why we protect ETS participants by allocating free allowances, with installations vulnerable to carbon leakage receiving up to 100% of their emissions allowances for free based on sector benchmarks.

Local Government Finance

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions has he had with the Levelling Up Secretary of State on his Department's access to local authority registers to investigate (a) current and (b) historic unpaid revenue.

John Glen: In line with the practice of successive administrations, details of internal discussions are not normally disclosed. The Chancellor and his officials are in regular contact with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and his officials on matters pertaining to local government finance.

Help to Save Scheme

Paul Maynard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of people eligible to use Help to Save have opened an account as of 31 December 2022.

Paul Maynard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of Help to Save accounts did not receive a bonus as of 31 December 2022.

Paul Maynard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the (a) minimum, (b) 25th percentile figure of the, (c) median, (d) 75th percentile figure of the and (e) maximum bonus for a Help to Save account was at the end of the second year of the scheme, as of the end of December 2022.

Paul Maynard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the median bonus for Help to Save accounts, including those that did not receive a bonus, was in each parliamentary constituency in each year since the scheme was introduced.

Paul Maynard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the median bonus was for Help to Save accounts, excluding those that did not receive a bonus, in each parliamentary constituency in each year since the scheme was introduced.

Paul Maynard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of Help to Save accounts did not receive a bonus in each year since the introduction of the scheme; and if he will provide a breakdown of those figures by parliamentary constituency.

Andrew Griffith: The number of Help to Save accounts opened each month up to the end of March 2022 is published in the Annual Savings Statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-savings-statistics-2022. The relevant information can be found in tab 2 of the document “Help to Save tables: June 2022”. This information will be updated in the next edition of the Annual Savings Statistics, due to be published on 22 June 2023. HMRC only has data on eligibility on a tax year basis. The information on the number of Help to Save accounts that did not receive a bonus as of 31 December 2022 and bonus percentiles, including the median, can only be provided at a disproportionate cost. The proportion of Help to Save accounts that did not receive a bonus in each year since the introduction of the scheme can only be provided at a disproportionate cost.

Help to Save Scheme

Julian Knight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he is taking steps to improve (a) the Help to Save scheme and (b) how bonuses are calculated for that scheme.

Andrew Griffith: The government launched a consultation on reforming the Help to Save scheme on 27 April 2023. The consultation seeks views from stakeholders on how the scheme could be reformed and simplified to ensure it: has longevity as a key savings product for working people on low incomes; encourages take-up in the target group; and provides the best value for taxpayers. The consultation can be found on gov.uk here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/help-to-save-reform. At present, Help to Save account holders can save a maximum of £50 a month and earn two tax-free bonuses over four years. After the first two years, the saver receives a bonus of 50% of the highest balance in their Help to Save account at any point in years one and two. After four years, they will get a further bonus of 50% of the difference between the highest balance saved in the first two years and the highest balance saved in the last two years.

Funerals: Pre-payment

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the Financial Conduct Authority's regulation of the funeral care plan sector.

Andrew Griffith: In January 2021, the government legislated to bring all pre-paid funeral plan providers and intermediaries within the regulatory remit of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) from 29 July 2022. This has ensured that 1.6 million funeral plan customers are, for the first time, protected by compulsory and robust regulation.The FCA is an operationally independent regulator. As such it must operate within the framework of statutory duties and powers agreed by Parliament and is therefore accountable to Parliament for how it discharges its statutory functions.There are also a number of mechanisms in the UK’s domestic framework which allow the Treasury to hold the regulators to account. In addition, Ministers and officials meet regularly with the regulators to discuss policy issues and areas of joint work or interest, while recognising the regulators’ operational independence.

Public Expenditure

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that allocated funding is disbursed in a timely way.

John Glen: HM Treasury works closely with departments to ensure that allocated funding is distributed in a timely and efficient way. Departments are given freedom to exercise commercial judgement within appropriate delegated authority arrangements. Project and programme spending outside of departments' Delegated Authority Limits is scrutinised by HM Treasury to ensure it reflects the government's priorities and meets the criteria for the use of public funds: regularity, propriety, value for money and feasibility. HM Treasury reviews Delegated Authority Limits on an annual basis to ensure scrutiny is focused and proportionate. HM Treasury has taken forward various initiatives to strengthen approval and decision-making processes across government, including updating the Treasury Approval Process in 2022 to support faster and higher quality spending approvals.

Child Trust Fund and Individual Savings Accounts

Mr Toby Perkins: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help (a) young people with disabilities and (b) other children to access (a) Child Trust Funds and (b) Junior ISAs.

Andrew Griffith: The government is committed to helping people access the savings and money they are entitled to, including the money held in Child Trust Funds (CTF) and Junior ISAs (JISA). While primary responsibility for communicating with account holders and their registered contact lies with CTF providers, HMRC works closely with providers, the wider industry and the Money and Pensions Service to ensure that young people are aware of, and can access, their CTFs, particularly those opened by HMRC on their behalf. The government’s current plans will reunite the vast majority of CTF accounts with their owners, but there may be some cases where further action will be required. The government will monitor how many accounts remain open and judge when it is appropriate to intervene in other ways. Only parents or a guardian with parental responsibility can open a JISA for an under 16-year old. Young adults are likely to be aware of JISAs opened for them. If the child lacks the mental capacity to manage their account when they turn 18 then the parent, or a close friend or relative, needs to apply to the Court of Protection (or equivalents in Scotland and Northern Ireland) for a financial deputyship order. This allows them to manage the young person’s adult ISA or matured CTF account or take out money on their behalf once they turn 18. Responsibility for the process and legislation relating to mental capacity rests with the Ministry of Justice and devolved administrations.

Childcare: Tax Allowances

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of setting the level of tax-free childcare allowance at a local level and increasing that level for claimants in areas with higher childcare costs.

John Glen: Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) provides financial support for working parents with their childcare costs. For every £8 parents pay into their childcare account, the Government adds £2 up to a maximum of £2,000 in top up per year for each child up to age 11 and up to £4,000 per disabled child until they are 17. As Tax-Free Childcare is a UK-wide offer, the level of financial support it provides has been set at the same level to avoid arbitrary cut-offs between different regions.

Department for Education

Schools: Speech and Language Therapy

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Centre for Social Justice’s report entitled Cracks in Our Foundations, published February 2023, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of that report's findings on (a) primary school teachers' views on the impact of support for children with speech, language and communication needs on foundational skills post pandemic, (b) head teachers' use of local NHS or out-of- school speech therapist services for speech and language support in their school and the availability of those services and (c) trends in demand for speech and language needs support post pandemic.

Claire Coutinho: The department wants every child to achieve well in their early years, at school and in further education, and ensuring that speech and language needs are identified early is crucial to enable the right support to be put in place. Schools are required to have arrangements in place to identify speech and language needs early. These arrangements should involve collaborative working between school staff, family and the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO).The department recognises that equipping the sector to deliver reform for children and young people is a long-term challenge, and we know that the impact of the cost of living, compounded by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, will make this even more complex.The government’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan committed to introducing a new SENCO National Professional Qualification, which will ensure SENCOs consistently receive high-quality, evidence-based training. The government is investing up to £180 million of recovery support in the early years sector to upskill early years practitioners in undertaking the Early Years Foundation Stage two-year-old progress check, including funding for the Nuffield Early Language Intervention.We are also taking a number of cross-government measures to address the impact of the pandemic on access to specialist services.To support the supply of more speech and language therapists and occupational therapists to the NHS, since September 2020 all eligible undergraduate and postgraduate degree students have been able to apply for a non-repayable training grant of a minimum of £5,000 per academic year, with further financial support available for childcare, accommodation, and travel costs. In partnership with NHS England, we are also funding Early Language and Support for Every Child pathfinders, which will trial new ways of working to better identify and support children with speech, language and communication needs in early years and primary schools.In our SEND and AP Improvement Plan the department has also committed to working with the Department of Health and Social Care to take a joint approach to SEND workforce planning, informed by a stronger evidence base. We will establish a steering group in 2023 to oversee this work. We have also committed to producing a suite of SEND and AP practice guides to equip frontline professionals to make best use of provision and identify needs early, accurately and consistently. Speech and language development is one of the areas we will prioritise.

Special Educational Needs: Staff

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to take steps to include organisations supporting people with SEND in the Steering Group to oversee the joint approach to SEND workforce planning.

Claire Coutinho: The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, published on 2 March 2023, set out that the Department for Education will work with the Department of Health and Social Care to take a joint approach to SEND workforce planning, informed by a stronger evidence base. We will establish a steering group in 2023 to oversee this work, which will feed into the National SEND and AP Implementation Board. We are currently considering the membership of the steering group, and further details will be provided in due course.

Children and Young People: Mental Health Services

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps social care providers can take to place a child safely if they believe that child is unsafe in a CAMHS placement.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to secure joint placement commissioning so that children with mental health needs are placed with adequate support.

Claire Coutinho: Local authorities have a statutory duty to ensure that there is sufficient accommodation to meet the needs of children they look after. This includes ensuring that children they look after are placed in the most appropriate care setting to meet their individual needs. Where looked after children have mental health needs, the local authority must ensure that their care placement can meet those needs, working with local and national health partners as appropriate.The department recognises that local authorities sometimes struggle to find the right placement to meet all of a child’s needs, particularly where they have complex mental health needs. Some of these children are on the waiting list for a placement in a secure children’s home, and the government is taking significant steps to support local authorities to fulfil their statutory duties in providing these placements. We are investing £259 million to build, expand and retain placements in open and secure children’s homes.The department works closely with health partners across government to deliver integrated care and health services for children with complex mental health needs who are placed in secure children’s homes. These homes provide specialist care in a secure environment for vulnerable children and young people who have either been remanded or sentenced by the courts or detained for their own welfare or to ensure the safety of others. Working with health partners across government, we are supporting the delivery of NHS England’s programme of the Framework for Integrated Care (SECURE STAIRS) which is a care framework that addresses the needs of children and young people in secure children’s homes. This programme has been developed to ensure that staff have the right skills to care for children and young people appropriately and to provide training to support young people’s complex mental health needs.The department is working with health partners across government, including the Department for Health and Social Care and NHS England, and with key stakeholders including the Association of Directors of Children’s Services and the Local Government Association, to consider how we can better work together to deliver children’s social care and health services for children with the most complex needs. A Task and Finish Group will examine the barriers to commissioning and providing joint care and health provision, and how we can support the sector to better deliver this in future, through implementing the recommendations in Stable Homes Built on Love, the Government’s strategy for transforming children’s social care, and building on other ongoing programmes, such as the NHS Long Term Plan.

Pupils: Mental Health Services

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has had recent discussions with schools on their ability to support pupils experiencing mental health difficulties.

Claire Coutinho: The department is helping schools and colleges to develop effective approaches to promote and support mental wellbeing, including through offering funded senior mental health lead training to all state schools and colleges by 2025. Many schools and colleges have prioritised pupil and student wellbeing since COVID-19, and increased school budgets and recovery funding can be used to support wellbeing.The department is also increasing the number of Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) working with schools and colleges from 287 in 2022 to 400 in 2023, covering around 35% of pupils in England. Around 500 MHSTs are planned to be up and running in 2024.Understanding the experience of education staff promoting and supporting the mental wellbeing of children and young people is an integral part of how we have developed and are providing support to schools and colleges. The department has regular engagement with representative bodies including discussion on mental wellbeing. We also gather insight through school and college panels and other experience surveys, and visits, along with other specific engagement with the education sector. In the latest school and college panel survey in November 2022, 73% of school teachers that responded felt they knew how to help pupils with mental health issues access support offered by their school.Insight directly from schools and colleges has been critical to informing the roll-out of MHSTs in partnership with the NHS. User research with schools and colleges has also shaped our offer of senior mental health lead training. The department is continuing to engage schools and colleges to understand what further support would help them to effectively meet the needs of children and young people. Officials work closely with our Mental Health and Wellbeing Partnership Group of national education stakeholders to shape further support.

Teachers

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2022 to Question 86460 on Teachers, how many full time equivalent (a) deferred newly qualified and (b) newly qualified entrants there were in the state school sector by Parliamentary constituency in England in the period between the 2011-12 and 2021-22 academic years.

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2022 to Question 86460 on Teachers, how many and what proportion of teachers who qualified in each year between 2010 and 2020 were still in service in the state school sector (a) one, (b) two, (c) three, (d) four, (e) five, (f) six, (g) seven, (h) eight, (i) nine, (j) 10 and (k) 11 years after qualifying in each English Parliamentary constituency.

Nick Gibb: Information on the number of newly qualified entrants to state funded schools in England and the retention rates of qualified teachers is published in the annual ‘School Workforce in England’ national statistics release. The information can be accessed at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.In the year to November 2021, the full time equivalent of 43,981 teachers joined the state funded sector in England, including 3,850 deferred newly qualified teachers and 22,059 newly qualified teachers. 87.5% of teachers who qualified in 2020 were still teaching one year after qualification.The requested figures by parliamentary constituency are not available.The number of teachers remains high, with over 465,500 full time equivalent teachers working in state funded schools across the country, over 24,000 more than in 2010. The Department’s reforms are aimed at increasing teacher recruitment and at ensuring teachers across England stay and thrive in the profession.The Department announced a financial incentives package of up to £181 million for those starting Initial Teacher Training in the 2023/24 academic year, a £52 million increase on the last cycle. The Department is providing bursaries worth up to £27,000 and scholarships worth up to £29,000 to encourage trainees to apply to train in key secondary subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing.The Department provides a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 annually for mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who work in disadvantaged schools nationally, including within Education Investment Areas. The eligibility criteria and list of eligible schools is on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/levelling-up-premium-payments-for-teachers.Almost 9 in 10 (87.5%) teachers who qualified in 2020 were still teaching one year after qualification, and just over two thirds (68.8%) of teachers who started teaching five years ago are still teaching.Teacher retention is key to ensuring effective teacher supply, and the Department is taking action to support teachers. The Department has published a range of resources to help address staff workload and wellbeing. This includes the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which the Department is encouraging schools to sign up to as a shared commitment to promote staff wellbeing. The Department has also published the workload reduction toolkit, developed alongside school leadership staff to help reduce workload, and resources to support schools to implement effective flexible working practices.

Apprentices: Fisheries

Mr Alistair Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many apprenticeship places (a) became available and (b) were filled in the fishing industry in each year of the last 10 years.

Robert Halfon: Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.The department does not hold or publish data on the number of apprenticeship places that become available in specific industries each year. However, the number of starts and achievements on apprenticeships within the ‘fishing and aquaculture’ industry in England are published.Starts figures are available from the 2012/13 academic year here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/69bfd6b1-e5cf-4c81-4465-08db462637b9. Achievement data is available from the 2018/19 academic year here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/ec714288-32ea-4047-4466-08db462637b9. The most recent data relates to the 2020/21 academic year. These figures are small and have been suppressed for disclosure control (using c) when less than five.

BTEC qualifications: Finance

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had recent discussions with (a) colleges and (b) other stakeholders on the potential impact of the proposed withdrawal of funding from Level 3 BTEC courses for which there would be no replacement qualification.

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact of withdrawing funding from some BTEC qualifications on levels of future recruitment in the (a) public and (b) travel and tourism sector.

Robert Halfon: Qualifications reform will ensure that A levels and T Levels are at the heart of most young people’s study programmes, as these qualifications offer the best progression for students. The department will also fund other qualifications where they are necessary, high-quality and lead to good progression. This includes alternative academic qualifications, such as BTECs, which could be studied alongside A levels to support entry to public sector occupations, such as the police. The new system will also support technical occupational entry qualifications where these cover Institution for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IFATE) occupational standards not covered by T Levels, such as in travel and tourism and public services.Unlike current alternatives to A levels such as BTECs, T Levels, and other new technical qualifications at level 3 will be designed in line with IFATE occupational standards. The standards can be found here: https://occupational-maps.instituteforapprenticeships.org/.These standards have been designed by employers to ensure that young people have the knowledge, skills and behaviours that employers need in the workplace. Alongside the highly successful apprenticeships programme and the increasing availability of T Levels, this represents a transformation of technical education to ensure that it meets the needs of employers in the future and provides excellent outcomes for young people.There are no T Levels specifically in travel and tourism or public/protective services. However, there are several occupational standards at level 3 on which reformed travel and tourism qualifications could be based, and the department fully anticipates awarding organisations to be adapting existing qualifications and basing them on these standards. We anticipate that current large qualifications in travel and tourism will be reformed to align with the relevant occupational standards so that they can be approved as technical qualifications going forward.The department regularly meets with colleges, stakeholders and employers to discuss the development of this new technical education landscape. We have also provided extensive support to colleges to facilitate the transition to T Levels, such as online guidance materials, workshops, and webinars for employers to attend, as well as offering direct, hands-on support.The newly updated provider support package supports providers in delivering T Levels, but from September 2023 will also aid providers in developing effective employer engagement strategies to aid them to source industry placements and engage with employers at scale.Earlier this year, the department launched a £12 million one-year employer support fund that will provide financial assistance to employers offering placements in the 2023/24 financial year, to help with costs such as administration, support with training staff who will supervise learners or tangible costs such as personal protective equipment or vaccinations.We have also launched the T Levels and Industry Placement Support for Employers website, which can be found here: https://employers.tlevels.gov.uk/hc/en-gb. The website offers guidance, case studies and more information about T Levels, specifically for employers. Following this, in November 2022, we launched the ‘Connect with employers interested in T Levels’ service, which enables providers to find employers who have expressed an interested in T Levels and industry placements. This service can be found here: https://connect.tlevels.gov.uk/start.The department regularly discusses qualification reform with stakeholders and listen to their concerns.

Schools: Antisemitism

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to tackle antisemitism in schools.

Claire Coutinho: Antisemitism, as with all forms of bullying and hatred, is abhorrent and has no place in our schools. Under the Equality Act 2010, schools have a duty to take steps to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation, advance equality of opportunity and to foster good relations across all protected characteristics, including religion. The department has published guidance for schools on how to comply with their duties under the Equality Act 2010 here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/equality-act-2010-advice-for-schools.The department is also making sure that all children in England learn about respectful relationships, in person and online, as part of mandatory relationships, sex and health education (RSHE). This includes content on the different types of bullying, the impact bullying has, the responsibility of bystanders, and how to get help. RSHE guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/teaching-about-relationships-sex-and-health.The department is fully committed to remembering the Holocaust and supporting high-quality and rigorous Holocaust education. We believe that young people should be taught the history of the Holocaust to understand why and how it happened, which is why it is the only historic event that is compulsory within the national curriculum for history at key stage 3. The topic is one that also has relevance to and can be taught in other subjects such as citizenship, religious education and English.The department is providing over £3 million of funding, between 10 August 2021 and 31 March 2024, to five anti-bullying organisations to support schools to tackle bullying. One grant recipient, The Anne Frank Trust, runs termly teacher training sessions which focus on a different form of prejudice at each meeting. The first one of these focuses on Antisemitism and helps to equip schools with the skills, resources and confidence to continue growing an anti-bullying culture within their school.The department continues to publish information, guidance and support for teachers and school leaders on how to challenge radical views, including racist and discriminatory beliefs, on the Educate Against Hate website, which can be found here: https://www.educateagainsthate.com/. The department has also published Respectful School Communities, a self-review and signposting tool to support schools to develop a whole-school approach which promotes respect and discipline. https://educateagainsthate.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6.4953_DFE_Respectful-schools_signposting-tool_FINAL_Fillable_Client_Cop....pdf.

Agriculture: Further Education

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding the Government has allocated to agricultural colleges in each of the last five years.

Robert Halfon: The attached Excel spreadsheet supplies the allocation values for institutions which are specified as Agricultural and Horticultural Colleges and includes the institution name and UK Provider Reference Number.Allocations of funding are provided on an academic year basis, August through July, and therefore span multiple years. Whilst the funding is allocated to Agricultural and Horticultural Colleges, these institutions do deliver other study programmes. The data does not include funding for employer led apprenticeships or any funding devolved to Mayoral Combined Authorities.Data for allocation values 182827 (xlsx, 34.2KB)

Students: Cost of Living

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 24 April 2023 to Question 180273 on Students: Cost of Living, whether his Department plans to respond to the report's recommendations.

Robert Halfon: The department recognises the additional cost of living pressures that have arisen this year and that have impacted students.Based on active assessment of the available data and evidence and direct engagement with the sector, the government has taken action to support students with cost of living pressures.​On 11 January 2023 the department announced a one-off funding boost, increasing this year's student premium by £15 million, to support additional hardship requests.​There is now £276 million of student premium funding available for the 2023 academic year to support disadvantaged students who need additional help. ​This extra funding will complement the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes.The department has no current plans to respond formally to the report.

Apprentices: Standards

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many high-quality apprenticeship standards were available in the agriculture, environmental and animal care sector in each of the last ten years.

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many apprenticeship places have been available in the agriculture, environmental and animal care sector in each of the last ten years.

Robert Halfon: Apprenticeships are a great way for people to receive high quality training and to begin or progress in a career in the agriculture, environmental and animal care sector. There are 40 occupationally specific apprenticeship standards currently available in this sector, including Level 3 veterinary nurse, Level 4 countryside ranger and Level 5 horticulture and landscaping technical manager.The first employer-designed apprenticeship standards were introduced in 2014 to replace apprenticeship frameworks, as part of reforms to improve the quality of apprenticeships. Since August 2020, all new apprentices have been on apprenticeships designed against these standards. The table below shows the current number of apprenticeship standards on the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education’s (IfATE) agriculture, environmental and animal care occupational route. Three further standards are currently in development.Year Apprenticeship standards available 201532016420177201818201924202031202140202240202340Employers decide which apprenticeship places they offer and when, according to the needs of their business. The table below shows the number of apprenticeship starts in the agriculture, horticulture and animal care sector subject area, across both apprenticeship frameworks and standards, since the 2012/13 academic year.Academic YearsFramework StartsStandards StartsTotal Starts2012/137,090N/A7,0902013/147,060N/A7,0602014/157,010N/A7,0102015/168,190N/A8,1902016/177,330607,3902017/185,3301,3206,6402018/193,1903,4606,6502019/201,9403,9505,8902020/211205,4105,5302021/22306,6306,6602022/23 (Aug to Jan)Low4,4804,480To note:Low means fewer than five.There has been a small number of starts on frameworks since their withdrawal in 2020. Framework starts are recorded where an apprentice is returning to framework apprenticeship after an extensive break.

Universities: Strikes

Sir Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the average number of tuition hours not accessed by university students as a result of strike action by university staff in the last year; whether her Department issues guidance to (a) universities and (b) students on reimbursement of (i) fees and (ii) other costs for tuition hours not accessed by students as a result of (A) strikes and (B) other factors affecting the delivery of academic services by the university; what data her Department holds on the reimbursement of such costs to students by universities in such cases; and if she will make a statement.

Robert Halfon: Compensating students for disruption is the responsibility of higher education (HE) providers, which are independent from government.The Office for Students (OfS) has made clear that they expect universities to abide by the conditions of registration, maintain the delivery of HE and minimise disruption to students in the event of any industrial action. The OfS has also highlighted providers’ obligations under consumer protection law in relation to the impact of industrial action.The OfS have wide-ranging powers to ensure that students’ interests are protected, and they expect providers to do all they can to avoid disruption to students.The OfS’s powers include the ability to impose one or more specific ongoing conditions of registration, impose a monetary penalty, refuse to renew a provider’s access and participation plan, suspend aspects of a provider’s registration, vary or revoke a provider's authorisation for degree awarding powers, revoke a provider’s authorisation to use ‘university’ in its title, or deregister a provider.The OfS has advised HE providers that, in the event of disruption caused by industrial action, students may be entitled to repeated learning opportunities or tuition fee refunds. These remedies are determined by the contents of the provider-student contract, as well as relevant consumer protection law.

Ofsted: Reform

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to take steps to reform Ofsted.

Nick Gibb: Ofsted inspections provide vital assurance to parents and the wider community that pupils are receiving a high standard of education and are being kept safe.His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman, is committed to continuing Ofsted’s work to refine the inspection approach, and responding where concerns arise. For example, Ofsted is currently reviewing its approach to complaints handling and the way it inspects and reports on safeguarding in schools.The Department always keeps the overall inspection system under review, and will continue to do so, engaging with Ofsted and with the sector.

Schools: Defibrillators

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many defibrillators have been delivered to state funded schools in (a) Enfield North constituency and (b) Enfield Council in 2023.

Nick Gibb: On 20 January 2023, the Department announced that the first deliveries of defibrillators had taken place. More information on the announcement can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/defibrillator-deliveries-begin-for-all-schools-that-need-one.Since this announcement, as part of the ongoing rollout, the Department has delivered over 3,900 defibrillators to state funded schools.As of 27 April 2023, 20 defibrillators have been delivered to state funded schools in Enfield North constituency and 32 to schools in Enfield Local Authority. All eligible schools in Enfield are expected to receive a defibrillator by the end of the 2022/23 academic year. Schools will be contacted by the supplier, Lyreco, once their defibrillator has been dispatched.

Department for Education: Water

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on achieving water neutrality in her Department's estate.

Nick Gibb: The term water neutral is typically associated with planning requirements for new developments to minimise impact on local water demands. The Department’s estate will not be expanding to include newly built offices.In line with the Greening Government Commitments, the Department has committed to reduce water consumption. Since 2017/18, the Department has decreased water use by 60% and is currently meeting the Greening Government Commitment to reduce water consumption by at least 8% from the 2017/18 baseline. Information for the 2021/22 financial year will be published in the Greening Government Commitments Annual Report for 2021/22, due later this year. The data for all previous financial years is available online in previously published annual reports.

Education

Royston Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to reduce the potential disruption to children’s learning progress caused by possible future disease pandemics.

Nick Gibb: Most infectious diseases, including COVID-19, can be managed in schools by following the advice set out in the UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) ‘Health protection in children and young people settings, including education’ guidance. This guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-protection-in-schools-and-other-childcare-facilities. The Department maintains close links to UKHSA.The Department has appointed a dedicated Chief Scientific Advisor, Professor Russell Viner, who ensures that the Department is fully linked up with the science network across Government.In addition, schools can consult the Department’s ‘Emergency planning and response for education, childcare, and children’s social care settings’ guidance to ensure their emergency plans cover the possibility of any future significant public health incidents. This guidance is due to be updated in May 2023. The current guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/emergency-planning-and-response-for-education-childcare-and-childrens-social-care-settings.The Department is committed to learning lessons and continuous improvement from COVID-19. Almost £5 billion for education recovery was made available in response to COVID-19. The Department will continue to maintain focus on the implementation and impact of these recovery interventions, evaluating and learning from delivery, alongside the Department’s wider efforts to drive up attainment outcomes, specifically those of disadvantaged pupils.

Free Schools: Denton

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of a bid for a Free School secondary school for Denton on theTwoTreessite.

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will meet with the Hon. Member for Denton and Reddish to discuss the future of the Two Treesschoolsite.

Nick Gibb: The Department is currently assessing applications for new free schools and is looking to approve up to 15 new schools in areas where they are likely to have the biggest effects on improving outcomes. The Department will prioritise proposals located in Education Investment Areas, where outcomes in literacy and numeracy are the poorest. Applications are assessed against the published criteria, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-school-application-guide/how-to-apply-to-set-up-a-mainstream-free-school. This is a competitive process and the successful applications will be announced before the summer.No applications were received for Tameside and as such, it is difficult to advise on the suitability of the Two Trees site. Plans for future waves will be announced in due course. The free school presumption process is the route for Local Authorities to bring about the establishment of new schools where a Local Authority identifies the need for additional places. More information on this can be found at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/844346/Free_school_presumption_051119.pdf.The Regional Director’s office has been asked to contact the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish to meet and discuss this matter further, together with my noble Friend, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System and Student Finance, who is responsible for free schools policy.

Home Office

Asylum: Kurds

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she will include Kurds from Iraq and Iran in the streamlined asylum process.

Robert Jenrick: From 23 February, legacy claims from nationals of Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Syria and Yemen will be considered through the Streamlined Asylum Process. This is on the basis of their current high-grant rate of protection status (refugee status or humanitarian protection). All these nationalities have a grant rate of over 95% and over 100 grants of protection status in the year-ending September 2022. Please see Migration statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) for more information. Upon arrival, all asylum seekers undergo a screening interview, as well as robust security checks in which they will provide biometric information. Separate work is ongoing to more efficiently process all other asylum claims admitted to the UK asylum system awaiting consideration. To further accelerate decision making we will further drive productivity improvements by simplifying and modernising our system. This includes measures like shortening interviews, removing unnecessary interviews, making guidance simpler and more accessible, dealing with cases more swiftly where they can be certified as manifestly unfounded (e.g. Albania) and recruiting extra decision makers.

Home Country Nationals: Afghanistan

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many former Afghan (a) interpreters, (b) military personnel and (c) locally-employed MOD staff and contractors entered the UK under the ex-gratia scheme from 2013 to November 2022.

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many former (a) Afghan interpreters, (b) military personnel and (c) locally-employed Ministry of Defence staff and contractors accessed support through the Intimidation policy in place between 2010 and 2013.

Robert Jenrick: We owe a debt of gratitude to those Afghan citizens who risked their lives working for, or with, UK forces. Their safety and security, and that of their families, is a government priority. The Intimidation Policy and Ex-Gratia Scheme (EGS) was initially set up to recognise this.The Ministry of Defence continues to receive an unprecedented number of applications to the ARAP scheme, many of which are speculative, or duplicates of applications already made.There has been total of 21,365 individuals arrive in the UK under the ARAP and Pathway 1of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme. 7,619 people who were brought to safety in the UK during and after the evacuation eligible for the ACRS have been resettled under Pathway 1.Whilst a precise breakdown of the all the data requested is not available, work continues to assure information relating to all the people resettled and relocated to the UK. The next quarterly publication of statistics is due on 25 May 2023. More information can be viewed at:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghan-resettlement-programme-operational-data/afghan-resettlement-programme-operational-data

Visas: Sudan

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending visit visas for Sudanese nationals who are in the UK.

Robert Jenrick: Those wishing to come to the UK for a short time to stay with family can apply for a visit visa which allows them to stay in the UK for up to six months. Further details about visiting the UK are available here: https://www.gov.uk/standard-visitor Immediate family members of British citizens, and those settled in the UK, who wish to come and live in the UK can apply under one of the existing family visa routes. Further details are available here: https://www.gov.uk/uk-family-visa Applications can be made at any Visa Application Centre (VAC) and we will accept applications which would normally have to be made in the country where the person is living at any VAC from someone who has been evacuated, or self-evacuated, from Sudan. Each case is treated fairly and judged on merit, taking into account the individual circumstances of the case.

Visas: Sudan

Claire Hanna: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has taken steps to review family reunification visa mechanisms for people affected by the conflict in Sudan.

Robert Jenrick: Family Reunion allows individuals with protection status in the UK to sponsor their partner or children to stay with or join them here, provided they formed part of the family unit before the sponsor left their country of origin in order to seek protection.Where an application does not meet the eligibility requirements of the Immigration Rules, decision makers must consider whether there are any exceptional circumstances which would render a refusal a breach of our international obligations. Our policy also makes clear that there is discretion to grant visas outside the Immigration Rules, where there are compelling compassionate factors.Between 2015 and 2022, we have offered places to almost half a million (481,804) people from all over the world seeking safety. This includes 44,659 family reunion grants since 2015.There currently are no plans to review the Family Reunion route.

Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022: Impact Assessments

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 23 September 2022 to Question 51651 on Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022: Impact Assessments, when she plans to publish an economic impact assessment of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.

Chris Philp: The matter of when the Government publishes the economic impact assessment of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Art 2022 is currently under consideration.

British Nationality: Children

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of reducing the cost of making an application for British citizenship for children who were born in the UK.

Robert Jenrick: A fee waiver for children wishing to register as British Citizens on the basis of affordability, along with a fee exception for children who are looked after by a Local Authority, were introduced on 16 June 2022.

Members: Correspondence

Carla Lockhart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether HM Passport Office has a target time for responding to queries from hon. Members on behalf of their constituents.

Robert Jenrick: The target time for His Majesty’s Passport Office to respond to written queries from hon. Members is 20 working days. For the most urgent cases, hon. Members can continue to contact HM Passport Office via the dedicated hotline.

Asylum: Hotels

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department takes to consult with local communities before it signs a contract to use a hotel as temporary accommodation for asylum seekers.

Robert Jenrick: The record number of people that have crossed the Channel in small boats in recent years has placed the Home Office's asylum support infrastructure and accommodation services under immense pressure. Under the Immigration & Asylum Act 1999, the Home Office has a statutory obligation to provide asylum seekers, who would otherwise be destitute, with accommodation and support whilst their claim is under consideration. Eligible asylum seekers are ordinarily placed in housing accommodation; however, the unprecedented number of small boat arrivals has forced the Home Office to consider alternative accommodation options to ensure that we meet our statutory obligations, which has resulted in the temporary use of contingency accommodation. The use of contingency accommodation is a short-term solution and we are working hard with Local Authorities and our accommodation providers to find more appropriate accommodation. We have taken significant steps to improve levels of engagement with key stakeholders including district and parish councils, around hotel accommodation sites to ensure Local Authorities are kept updated and better informed and to ensure we understand and act on any concerns appropriately. We work closely with Local Authorities on full asylum dispersal to create a fairer distribution across the UK. We do not routinely engage with members of the public regarding utilising contingency accommodation.

Home Office: Official Cars

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Freedom of Information response, reference 31771, published on 25 July 2014, how many journeys were taken by the Minister of State for Security in ministerial cars provided by the Government Car Service between 6 September 2022 and 6 May 2023.

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Freedom of Information response, reference 31771, published on 25 July 2014, how many journeys were taken by (a) the Minister of State for Immigration and (b) the Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Fire in ministerial cars provided by the Government Car Service between 26 October 2022 and 6 May 2023.

Chris Philp: This information is not held in a reportable format.

Vishal Mehrotra

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the implications for its policies of the decision by Sussex Police not to review the case of Vishal Mehrotra.

Chris Philp: Decisions concerning individual investigations are the responsibility of the respective police force’s chief officers to make.As police forces are independent of government, it would not be appropriate to comment on such decisions.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of proscribing Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation.

Tom Tugendhat: Whilst we keep the list of proscribed organisations under review, it is Government policy not to comment on whether a group is under consideration for proscription.To proscribe an organisation, the Home Secretary must have a reasonable belief that it is concerned in terrorism. This means the organisation participates or commits; prepares for; promotes, encourages or unlawfully glorifies; or is in some way otherwise concerned in terrorism. As well as considering whether the statutory test for proscription has been satisfied, the Home Secretary’s decision to proscribe must be necessary and proportionate, having taken into account all relevant factors.The UK Government has long been clear about its concerns over the continued destabilising activity of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The UK is committed to working with the international community to ensure Iran is held to account.The UK has close to 300 sanctions in place against Iran, including on the IRGC in its entirety. We will continue to use all tools at our disposal to protect the UK and our interests from any Iran-linked threats.

Homes for Ukraine Scheme: Higher Education

Drew Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that Ukrainian people with visas under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme who are beginning higher education studies in the UK will be able to complete their period of study.

Robert Jenrick: Ukrainians in the UK under our Ukraine Schemes can apply for other types of leave where they are eligible, including leave as a student. If their study is ongoing after their 36 months leave, they are able to apply for a student visa to extend their leave at any time during their Ukraine scheme leave. A student visa is granted for the duration of the course, so can be applied for before the end of the three-year visa to ensure a student has the leave required to complete their course. More information can be found at Ukrainian nationals in the UK: visa support - GOV.UK (Immigration Rules - Immigration Rules: Appendix Student - Guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)). The UK Government is keeping the broader potential need for an extension of leave, for sanctuary after 36 months, under review, in line with the developments of the situation in Ukraine.

Body Searches: Children

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 17 April 2023 to Question 175703 on Body Searches: Children, how many and what proportion of forces voluntarily provided this data.

Chris Philp: For the first time in the year ending March 2022, the Home Office collected and published data on strip searches that occurred in police custody, available here: Police powers and procedures: Other PACE powers, England and Wales, year ending 31 March 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)The data quality section of the publication includes information on the number of forces which were able to provide data for the year ending March 2022: 28 out of the 43 territorial police forces (65%) provided data on strip searches in custody. Of these, 27 forces provided data on age of the person strip searched.It is usual practice for new data collections added to the Annual Data Requirement (ADR) to be collected on a voluntary basis for the first year of data collection, to allow forces time to embed recording processes and make changes to their systems as required. As such, not all forces provided data or provided partial data and therefore the data were published as experimental statistics. It is mandatory for police forces to provide this data for the year ending March 2023.

Asylum: Sudan

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what legal routes of entry to the UK exist for Sudanese national family members of British nationals.

Robert Jenrick: The Family Immigration Rules, contained in Appendix FM to the Immigration Rules (Immigration Rules - Immigration Rules Appendix FM: family members - Guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)) provide for close family members of British citizens and persons settled in the United Kingdom to come to the UK on a route to settlement. These routes are available to partners, parents, children and adult dependent relatives. Each route has specific requirements which must be met.Each application is considered on its merits and on a case-by-case basis taking into account the individual circumstances. Details of the routes available to family members can be found at: Family in the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Asylum: Families

Afzal Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people in her Department are responsible for making decisions on family reunion cases.

Robert Jenrick: In 2022 4,473 family reunion visas were issued to partners and children of those granted protection status. Our family reunion policy has granted more than 44,600 family reunion visas since 2015, with over half issued to children.  We will prioritise applications where there is a particularly urgent or compelling reason to do so.

Nitrous Oxide: Misuse

Crispin Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Working Protocol between the Home Secretary and the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, published on 15 November 2011, whether she discussed with the Chair or a nominated representative her reasons to reject the Council's recommendations on nitrous oxide before making a final decision.

Chris Philp: As Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Fire, I met the Chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) and the Chair of the ACMD Novel Psychoactive Substances Committee, which undertook the nitrous oxide review, on 7 March 2023 to discuss the findings of the updated ACMD harms assessment on nitrous oxide before a final decision had been taken.This is in accordance with Part 4 (iv) of the Working Protocol between the Home Secretary and the ACMD.

Asylum: Appeals

Afzal Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to bring into force the provisions in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 on (a) priority removal notices and (b) accelerated appeals.

Robert Jenrick: Work is underway to bring the provisions in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 relating to (a) priority removal notices and (b) accelerated appeals into force as soon as possible.

Asylum: Age

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the impact of the new regulations for age assessments for asylum seekers on the level of safeguarding risk arising from adults pretending to be children.

Robert Jenrick: The National Age Assessment Board (NAAB) launched on 31 March 2023. The NAAB aims to make age assessments more consistent and robust from the outset, reducing the safeguarding risks of individuals being incorrectly assessed. The service is currently limited to working with a small number of local authorities in London and West Midland regions with a view to expanding out nationally as we build up capacity. We will continue to monitor the impact of the National Age Assessment Board on customer behaviour.

Vetting: Standards

John Penrose: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the official statistics entitled DBS checks: police performance summary, published on 28 April 2021, when she plans to update the data on average turnaround times for DBS checks at police forces; and for what reasons data on average turnaround times has not been updated since April 2021.

Miss Sarah Dines: There is no intention for DBS to update the ‘DBS checks: police force summary’ data on its website. For the 2021/22 reporting year and onwards DBS decided to focus on the data items it publishes every quarter relating to its legacy measures, internal targets and product volumes, including data about the average turnaround times for police forces. Data published by DBS is focused on its own key service standards and is accompanied by a narrative that explains DBS’ performance and the average turnaround times for all levels of DBS checks. This includes performance for Enhanced checks, for which police forces may be required to undertake checks of their local records.

Asylum

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum applications were processed by her Department in the last 12 months; and how many and what proportion of these applications were made by Palestinians.

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of applications for asylum made by Palestinian people were successful in the last 12 months.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on initial decisions made on asylum applications by nationality can be found in table Asy_D02 of the ‘asylum and resettlement detailed datasets’. Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbooks. The latest data relate to the year ending December 2022. Data for the year ending March 2023 will be published on 25 May 2023. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.

Refugees: Children

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many children have been issued a letter signalling the intention for them to be to designated as a group 2 refugee should their asylum claim be successful (a) since 28 June 2022 and (b) for the most recent period in which data is available.

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the (a) age and (b) nationality of children who received a letter of intention to designate them as a group 2 refugee.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on initial decisions made on asylum applications, including grants of temporary refugee permission by age and nationality, can be found in table Asy_D02 of the ‘asylum and resettlement detailed datasets’. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook.Please note this data only includes those who have been granted temporary refugee permission, not those who have received a letter of intention to designate them as a group 2 refugee.The latest data relate to the year ending December 2022. Data for the year ending March 2023 will be published on 25 May 2023. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.

Asylum: Northern Ireland

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people sought asylum in Northern Ireland in (a) 2021 and (b) 2023 to date; and if she will publish a breakdown of those applicants by (i) gender, (ii) age, (iii) marital status and (iv) number of children.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office does not hold this data in a reportable format.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Private Rented Housing: Safety

Matthew Pennycook: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department plans to commission a (a) review and (b) redraft of the housing health and safety rating system guidance, published on 23 August 2006.

Rachel Maclean: Reviewing and updating the HHSRS is integral to the government's commitment to ensuring that everyone has a safe and decent standard of housing free from dangerously hazardous conditions.The review aims to streamline the process that local councils take in inspecting properties to assess hazards and, make it easier for landlords and tenants to understand the standards required, supporting increased compliance. This included reviewing the statutory Operating and Enforcement Guidance.We will make any announcements in the usual way.

Property Development: Foreign Investment in UK

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an assessment of the potential benefits to the economy of foreign investment in (a) housing, (b) business and (c) other development on brownfield sites.

Rachel Maclean: Inward foreign investment can provide a range of benefits including the regeneration of brownfield land, construction of new homes and commercial units and the creation of jobs - as we work towards our ambition to build 300,000 homes per year.

Levelling Up Fund

Kim Leadbeater: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what progress his Department has been made on distributing Levelling Up Round 2 funding to successful bids.

Dehenna Davison: Round 2 of the Levelling Up Fund will invest up to £2.1 billon in 111 successful bids across the UK. A first tranche of payments was made in March. We are making good progress onboarding Round 2 projects, with inception meetings being held. We expect to make further payments by July.

Elections: Proof of Identity

Kirsty Blackman: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities during the Urgent Question on 27 April 2023 on Voter ID, in response to the question from the hon. Member for Aberdeen North, if he will provide details of the research demonstrating that 99% of people from black and ethnic minority communities already have an acceptable form of voter ID.

Clive Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of voter ID policies on black and minority ethnic voters.

Clive Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department has taken to provide targeted support to black and minority ethnic voters on new voter ID requirements.

Clive Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his oral evidence to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee on 22 March 2023, HC 1213, what his estimated timescale is for the appointment of the independent partner who will review the operation of the voter ID scheme; and if he will publish the selection criteria for that appointment.

Clive Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his oral evidence to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee on 22 March 2023, HC 1213, when he expects the review of the operation of the voter ID scheme to begin.

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that immunocompromised people at polling stations can still vote if they do not take off their face masks inside to verify identification; and whether people will be offered the option to remove face masks outside of polling stations for verification purposes.

Dehenna Davison: I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to Question UIN 180947 on 20 April 2023.Regarding the review of the introduction of voter identification, I refer to the answer I gave to Question UIN 162192 on 14 March 2023.It is for Returning Officers and Presiding Officers to ensure that suitable arrangements are in place for checking the identity of disabled and immunocompromised people who are vulnerable to COVID-19. This may include checking identification outside the polling place where appropriate.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Training

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will publish the guidance his Department uses for diversity network events which require checks on external speakers prior to inviting them to participate in Civil Service events.

Dehenna Davison: The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has due diligence guidance for staff networks considering using external speakers at DLUHC events.It is imperative that we retain impartiality across the Civil Service.Our due diligence process is published on the internal Departmental intranet setting out clearly the steps that are required.

Bed and Breakfast Accommodation: Birmingham

Christopher Pincher: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of Birmingham City Council's decision to use of bed and breakfast facilities at significant distances from that city to accommodate homeless families; and if he will make a statement.

Felicity Buchan: Legislation is clear that local authorities must ensure temporary accommodation is suitable in relation to the applicant and all members of their household. This requires an assessment of all aspects of the accommodation, including location.We are clear that local authorities should, as far as possible, avoid placing households out of their borough. Placing households in temporary accommodation outside of the local area should be a last resort.Applicants may request a review of their TA if they feel it is unsuitable. If an applicant is not satisfied with how the council has handled their case, they may complain to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman or take legal action in the courts.

Islamophobia

Afzal Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what progress has been made on developing an official definition of Islamophobia.

Afzal Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of establishing an official definition of Islamophobia.

Afzal Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what discussions he has had with Muslim communities on the potential merits of an official definition of Islamophobia.

Dehenna Davison: Anti-Muslim hatred is entirely abhorrent. Such hate has no place in our communities or society, which is why we have funded Tell MAMA since 2016 to monitor and combat anti-Muslim hatred.As set out previously, the Government does not support taking forward work on an official definition of Islamophobia but instead is working to address anti-Muslim hatred and the unacceptable forms which that takes.We are considering our approach to religious hatred more broadly, including anti-Muslim hatred, and will be announcing our next steps in due course.

Housing: Construction

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his oral contribution of 8 December 2022, Official Report, column 546, on forthcoming changes to the National Planning Policy Framework to defend the green belt, if he will recover planning appeals (a) 5/21/3194, Land North of Chiswell Green Lane: APP/B1930/W/22/3312277 and (b) 5/22/0927, Land South of Chiswell Green Lane: APP/B1930/W/22/3313110 for his determination.

Rachel Maclean: As has been the case under successive administrations, including when Liberal Democrats served in Government, decisions on whether to recover planning appeals are made in line with policy as set out in a Written Ministerial Statement of 30 June 2008 (Column 44WS).

Right to Acquire Scheme

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans bring the Right To Acquire scheme in line with the Right To Buy scheme.

Rachel Maclean: The Government is keeping its homeownership options under review, however, there are no current plans to bring the Right to Acquire scheme in line with the Right to Buy scheme.

Social Rented Housing: Mould

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has had recent discussions with social landlords on the cost of rectifying damp and mould in their properties.

Rachel Maclean: We regularly engage with social landlords - as well as residents, experts and other sector representatives - about all aspects of our reform agenda, including our review of the Decent Homes Standard.

Right to Buy Scheme

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will publish the timetable for the extension of the Right to Buy scheme.

Rachel Maclean: I refer the Hon. Member to my answer to Question UIN 139221 on 13 February 2023.

Private Rented Housing: Evictions

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many Section 21 notices have been issued in every month since March 2022.

Rachel Maclean: The data requested is not held centrally.

Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made a recent assessment of the effectiveness of the Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019.

Dehenna Davison: I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to Question UIN 182140 on 26th April 2023.

Proof of Identity: Photographs

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an estimate of the number and proportion of (a) 18 to 24, (b) 25 to 60, (c) 60 to 70 and (d) over 70 year-olds that have photographic identification.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department's news story entitled Voter Identification - FAQs, published on 26 May 2021, what the (a) sample size and (b) geographic area was that was used to determine that 98 per cent of electors owned a photographic document that was on the list of acceptable types of identification under the Voter Identification policy.

Dehenna Davison: Further to the answer given to Question UIN 165271 on 20 March 2023, the Cabinet Office published this survey on levels of ownership of photographic identification. Further details are available in Annex A of that report.

Local Government: Elections

Simon Lightwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate his Department has made of the number of electors in the Wakefield constituency who do not have the required ID to vote in the May 2023 local elections.

Dehenna Davison: I refer the Hon. Member to the response given to Question UIN 182686 on 3 May 2023.

Public Lavatories: Men

Carla Lockhart: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Written Statement of 9 November 2022, HCWS172 on Building Regulations, if his Department will take steps to ensure that the review considers equal access to male sanitary bins in already established buildings as well as new buildings..

Lee Rowley: I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 83564 on 17 November 2022.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Staff

Simon Jupp: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many staff are working in the Levelling Up Unit in his Department.

Dehenna Davison: As of 28 April 2023, there are over 700 FTE staff working in the Department’s Levelling Up Group. To drive delivery of the levelling up agenda, a Director General led group was established under Will Garton, Director General for Levelling Up. The group includes director led units working on strategy and policy, place, delivery, spatial data, funds and area teams based around the country. The group are responsible for work including, but not limited to Investment Zones, Levelling Up Partnerships, Freeports, the devolution agenda in England including the recent Trailblazer agreements secured with Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, the department’s role on Anti-Social Behaviour, the Levelling Up Fund, the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, the Community Ownership Fund, legacy funds as well as servicing the Levelling Up Inter Ministerial Group and wider cross-cutting Levelling Up priorities (including the Levelling Up Missions). This activity is support by the Spatial Data Unit and the department’s analytical capability. Other portfolios within the department’s wider senior leadership team also ensure that Levelling Up is the central mission of the department. There are currently Groups covering Local Government, Resilience and Communities; Building Safety, Grenfell and Net Zero; Regeneration (specifically Housing); Finance; and the Union. Further details will be set out in the department’s organogram which will be updated and published in due course on gov.uk In early 2022, prior to the establishment of the Levelling Up group and the wider departmental reorganisation, the former Second Permanent Secretary led an external recruitment process for Levelling Up Directors. There were over 500 applicants, but – given the wider departmental changes - Ministers have decided not to proceed with the appointment of the directors. This renewed and significant senior departmental capacity, combined with the progress of the English devolution agenda, means that we believe that we are best placed to deliver levelling up by working directly with Mayoral Combined Authorities, local government, and the devolved administrations. We will continue to co-ordinate government policy via means of specific, targeted placed based interventions. We are grateful for all those who showed an interest in the roles, and for the work of the Civil Service Commissioner who supported this recruitment. The department will continue to keep under review its staffing dedicated to its priorities including work driving Levelling Up across the whole of the UK.

Ministry of Justice

Ministry of Justice: Bidfood

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 2 May 2023 to Question 182532, on Ministry of Justice: Bidfood, and with reference to January 2021 spend data published by his Department on 24 November 2022, what goods or services were purchased under transaction reference 9368763131 on 1 January 2021 for 4,312.76 with the merchant listed as BFS GROUP LTD.

Damian Hinds: Transaction 9368763131 relates to the payment for food stuffs for Prisoners at HMPPS Isle of Wight to BFS Group Ltd who are the contracted supplier for the HMPPS Food supply contract. The contract uses an embedded Procurement card to make payment on the suppliers ordering portal.

Prisons: Food

Mr Alistair Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much of his Department's budget was spent on food in prisons in each of the last five years; and what proportion of the food supplied to prisons in each of those years was produced by UK farmers.

Damian Hinds: The spending information is not collected centrally and could not be provided without incurring disproportionate cost. Prison food budgets are determined locally (by the Governor in public sector prisons, or the Director in privately managed prisons) and kept under review as part of normal budget allocation planning. While the contract requires our food supplier to provide a monthly country of origin report, it is not possible from this to disaggregate supply from British farming.

Prisons

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when his Department expects to have completed its implementation of local regime leads across the entire prison estate through the National Regime Model.

Damian Hinds: All prisons will have a local regime lead in place by the end of 2023/24.

Family Proceedings

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of support available to (a) fathers, (b) mothers and (c) parental guardians going through court proceedings.

Mike Freer: We are aware of the impact involvement in family court proceedings can have on the fathers, mothers or parental guardians and children involved, which is why this Government is committed to ensuring that all parents can get the support they need to access the justice system across England and Wales. Since 2015, the Ministry of Justice has invested more than £25 million in support for litigants in person and funding a broad range of free legal support services. The government announced in March a new £10.4m 'Improving Outcomes Through Legal Support' grant. This grant will run from July 2023 until March 2025 and will be administered by the Access to Justice Foundation on behalf of the Ministry of Justice. The grant will continue to help thousands of people get access to legal support, including from organisations who provide at-court support. In addition to this, the charity ‘Support Through Court’ offer practical, procedural and emotional support to all parents facing court without legal representation, regardless of their gender or sex. Support Through Court is based at 14 locations in England and Wales, and also offers a national helpline. The Government is committed to helping more parents resolve their issues earlier and without coming to court, allowing the resources of the family courts to remain focused on the families and children who are most in need of the court’s involvement. In March 2021 the Government launched the Mediation Voucher Scheme. As of April 2023, the scheme has helped over 17,000 families to access mediation and resolve their issues away from the family court. The government invested £3.2m in 2021-22, a further £5.4m in the scheme in the 2022-23 and is investing a further £15m to extend the scheme to April 2025, taking our overall investment up to £23.6m. Following the success of the Voucher Scheme, the Government has recently published a public consultation on how Government can better support parents to resolve their issues earlier and away from the family courts where appropriate. Proposals include fully funded pre-court co-parenting programmes to provide parents and carers with the tools to enable them to reach agreements themselves and continue to care for their child(ren) once separated and a requirement, in appropriate cases, to make a reasonable attempt to mediate before applying to court. The consultation closes on 15 June.

European Convention on Human Rights

John Howell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the debate on European Convention on Human Rights and national constitutions, which took place at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 25 April 2023.

Mike Freer: The Government has noted with interest the debate on the European Convention on Human Rights and national constitutions, and the associated report by the Assembly’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights which recognises “the UK having the lowest number of ECtHR applications (and indeed admissible applications), per capita, of Council of Europe member States.The Government has also noted the discussion in the Committee’s report of legislation currently before this Parliament. The United Kingdom is committed to the promotion and protection of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. We will always make sure that our laws work in the best interests of the UK.

Taxis: Guide Dogs

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prosecutions each licensing authority has brought under the provisions of the Equality Act 2010 governing a blind person's right to travel in licensed taxis with their guide dogs since January 2022, broken down by licensing authority.

Edward Argar: The Ministry of Justice publishes information on prosecutions for various offences in the Outcomes by Offence data tool: June 2022. Offences under the provisions of the Equality Act 2020 governing a blind person’s right to travel in licenced taxis with their guide dog are within 19599 – Other summary non-motoring offences. Between January to June 2022, there were no prosecutions related to this act. Prosecutions for 2022 will be available in the next annual Criminal Justice System Statistics publication. Details of licensing authority are not held centrally in the Court Proceedings database.

Family Courts: Standards

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 6 March 2023 to Question 152246 on Family Courts: Standards, what steps his Department is taking to reduce those waiting times.

Mike Freer: Reducing the waiting times in the family courts remains a priority for this Department. To work through the outstanding caseload, we are maximising judicial sitting days. We are recruiting around 1,000 judges and tribunal members in 2023/24 to help hear more cases and reduce family court waiting times. In March 2021 the Government launched the Mediation Voucher Scheme. As of April 2023, the scheme has helped over 17,000 families to access mediation and resolve their issues away from the family court. In March of this year, the Government published a consultation on supporting families to reach agreements earlier and more amicably, where appropriate to do so. Key proposals include families completing a co-parenting programme and attempting to mediate before they make an application to court. These proposals will help more parents resolve their issues earlier, allowing the resources of the family courts to remain focused on the families and children who are most in need of the court’s involvement. The Family Justice Board, which brings together leaders from across the family justice system and is co-chaired by MoJ and DfE ministers, has introduced a strategic plan to deliver on their priorities of minimising delays in the family courts. We are working on a package of measures to reduce demand and increase efficiencies in private law cases, and are supporting public law projects to tackle the delays. We are also working to support the President of the Family Division following the relaunch of the Public Law Outline, to improve timeliness of public law cases and return to the 26-week target for concluding cases.

Legal Aid Scheme

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of people who are unable to afford private legal fees and are ineligible for legal aid; whether his Department has identified areas of the country where there is a lack of legal aid services available across different legal specialisms; and if he will make an assessment of the impact of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (2012) on (a) the number of people who are unable to afford private legal fees and are ineligible for legal aid and (b) the areas where there is a lack of legal aid services available across different legal specialisms.

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of pay for people working in legal aid; and if he will make an estimate of the number of Legal Aid providers that have accepted new cases since the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (2012) came into force.

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the availability of access to housing legal aid; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of expanding housing legal aid to include (a) welfare benefits advice, (b) early housing advice and (c) advice on disrepair compensation claims.

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the impact of the availability of access to housing legal aid on (a) numbers of evictions, (b) enforcement of tenants’ rights and (c) the number of legal proceedings brought forward relating to housing.

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the impact of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (2012) (a) numbers of successful tenant defences at possessions proceedings, (b) numbers of evictions, (c) homelessness levels and (d) numbers of successful application for local Government homelessness assistance.

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (2012) on the (a) availability, (b) effectiveness and (c) durability of legal aid firms providing housing advice services.

Mike Freer: In March 2022, the Ministry of Justice consulted on several changes to the civil and criminal legal aid means tests to ensure that legal aid remains accessible to all who need it. When implemented, the changes will increase the number of people eligible for civil legal aid in England and Wales by an additional 2.5 million. At the Crown Court, the Government has also proposed removing the current £37,500 disposable income threshold; if implemented, this would mean that all defendants at the Crown Court would be eligible for legal aid and so would not have to pay privately, though a proportion may be required to pay a monthly income contribution towards their legal costs. Whilst the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) introduced changes to the scope of legal aid, legal aid services continued to be delivered following LASPO. The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) publishes statistics regarding new cases completed and started in each period by legal aid scheme with additional breakdowns by region and by Controlled and Licensed Work at tables 9.1-5.The LAA frequently reviews market capacity to make sure there is adequate provision of legal aid, in all categories of law, throughout England and Wales. The LAA moves quickly, where issues arise, to secure additional provision and to ensure demand for legal aid services, which may vary across different categories of law and across different geographic regions, is met. Legal advice on a range of civil matters including housing, debt, discrimination, and education is available, wherever people are, through the Civil Legal Advice telephone service.The Ministry of Justice continues to consider the long-term sustainability of the criminal and civil legal aid market. Following publication of our full response to the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review (CLAIR) on 30 November 2022, we have boosted the system with immediate investment to address the most urgent concerns, including uplifts of 15% to most legal aid fee schemes.Our plans will put criminal legal aid on a sustainable footing and ensure there is a sustainable supply of practitioners. Criminal legal aid spend is expected to increase to £1.2 billion per year, which is the highest level since 2010.We have also recently launched a review of civil legal aid to identify evidence-based options which will help inform our longer-term strategy for improving the sustainability and effectiveness of the civil legal aid system.Concerning legal aid for housing matters, the 2019 Post Implementation Review of Part 1 of LASPO found that individuals experiencing social welfare problems, especially related to housing matters, struggle to resolve their problems early, often leading to a clustering of problems. This in turn requires costly intervention at the courts and increases pressure on social services. In response, the MoJ is amending LASPO to expand the scope of legal aid for people facing the loss of their home to include early legal advice on housing, debt and welfare benefits from 1 August 2023 through the creation of the Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service (HLPAS). It is hoped that the HLPAS will enable individuals to resolve matters before court proceedings take place, reducing homelessness and pressure on the courts. HLPAS will also support housing legal aid providers, providing payment for the early legal advice and improving renumeration rates for delivering the court duty service. Up to £10m in annual funding has been made available for HLPAS. In addition, since 31 October 2022 we have been piloting early legal advice on certain housing, debt and welfare benefits matters in Manchester and Middlesbrough to test the impact of early legal advice on resolving an individual’s problem more quickly. The pilot ended on 31 March 2023 and a final evaluation report is expected in July 2023. Legal aid remains available for disrepair cases when there is a serious threat of illness or injury. Anyone in this position should contact the Civil Legal Advice helpline. Whilst the MoJ continually monitors the latest data on possession proceedings, we are unable to assess the impact of LASPO on any trends in possession proceedings, evictions, homelessness levels and numbers of successful application for local Government homelessness assistance. This is because we cannot isolate any LASPO impact from changes over the same period. Information concerning housing legal aid providers can be found here:Legal aid statistics quarterly: October to December 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Prisons: Racial Discrimination

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent steps he has taken to help prevent racial discrimination in prisons in England.

Damian Hinds: Our response to the HMI Prisons thematic on the experiences of adult black staff and black prisoners recently set out our ambition to take a zero-tolerance approach to racism and discrimination. This is a long-term commitment to change the culture of HMPPS for the better, with a plan focussed on actions and underpinned by clear accountability.Our approach includes short, medium, and long-term actions to ensure there is equal opportunity and equal outcomes for all staff and people in custody. This will include reviewing the impact of use of force, developing a nationwide reverse mentoring programme, creating more targeted recruitment campaigns and continuing to work closely with third sector partners, trade unions and our staff networks, such as RISE, which focuses on black and other underrepresented staffing groups.Routinely, prisons are responsible for identifying and tackling disproportionality locally. This is done via diversity and inclusion forums where racial issues are raised, discussed, and solutions actioned. In addition, the HMPPS Tackling Unacceptable Behaviour Unit (TUBU) began work in August 2020 in order to change workplace behaviours (focussing on staff on staff behaviour) for the better, by providing additional support to managers investigating concerns and ensuring that investigations are carried out fairly and consistently and any unacceptable behaviour is challenged and dealt with appropriately.

Probation

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the HM Inspectorate of Probation report entitled Independent serious further offence review of Jordan McSweeney, published January 2023, what progress he has made on implementing each of the 10 recommendations in that report.

Damian Hinds: This was a despicable crime. We have apologised unreservedly to Zara Aleena’s family for the unacceptable failings in the management of this case. H M Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) has accepted all of the recommendations in the report and is in the process of implementing them. HMPPS will conduct reviews to measure progress in implementing the measures outlined in the resulting Action Plan, at the six-month and twelve-month points after publication. We have provided extra funding of more than £155 million a year to enable the Probation Service to deliver more robust supervision, reduce caseloads and recruit thousands more staff to keep the public safer. Better information-sharing arrangements between all sectors of the criminal justice system; improving the quality of court reports; and support for senior probation officers to manage complex teams and caseloads will strengthen probation practice and improve public protection. We have also updated mandatory training for new staff, to improve risk assessments, and are implementing new processes to guarantee the swift recall of offenders.

Prosecutions

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were prosecuted under the single justice procedure in each month of 2022 broken down by offence; and what the plea rates were for offences charged under the single justice procedure in each month of 2022.

Edward Argar: Data showing the number of defendants dealt with via single justice procedures (SJP) notices at the magistrates’ courts by plea and offence in England and Wales from January to December 2022 (latest available) can be found in the attached table.The data supplied is a subset of published information relating to the timeliness of defendants dealt with by SJP notice which is available in Table T1 of the Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly, latest to December 2022.Table (xlsx, 57.5KB)

Prison Accommodation

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if his Department will publish data on the average time spent out of cell in each prison in England and Wales.

Damian Hinds: The information requested for adult prisoners is not held by the Ministry of Justice as collecting it would require the detailed monitoring of cell activity in each prison establishment.There is no central requirement governing the amount of time that prisoners should spend out of their cells. Governors are instead afforded the flexibility to deliver balanced regimes that maintain an appropriate level of time out of cell on a range of activities, including association, which meet the needs of the establishment’s population.HMPPS has introduced a Regime Dashboard which reports the percentage of prisoners receiving different levels of regime each week. We are further developing this to align to future regimes. A performance metric has also been introduced to hold prisons to account on their levels of regime delivery. Data from this are scheduled for publication in July 2023.

Department of Health and Social Care

Rare Diseases

Liz Twist: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on the delivery of the SWAN Pilot Programme as part of the England 2023 Rare Diseases Action Plan.

Helen Whately: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Rare Diseases

Liz Twist: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to consult with (a) patients and (b) the public on the (i) development and (ii) delivery of the SWAN Pilot Programme under the England 2023 Rare Diseases Action Plan.

Helen Whately: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Hereditary Diseases

Liz Twist: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support people with undiagnosed genetic conditions.

Helen Whately: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

IVF: LGBT+ People

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Women’s Health Strategy for England, published on 30 August 2022, whether his Department has taken recent steps to help tackle the financial burdens faced by the LGBTQ+ community when accessing IVF treatment.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Department of Health and Social Care: Public Relations

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department's budget for public relations was in each of the last five years.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Mental Health Services: Children and Young People

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the availability of Tier 4 beds in (a) England, (b) York and (c) North Yorkshire; and whether he plans to take steps to increase the number of beds available.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Radiology: Paediatrics

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to take steps to expand national capacity for paediatric interventional radiology training.

Helen Whately: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Department of Health and Social Care: Sick Leave

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the number of departmental staff who took sick absences related to stress, anxiety, depression or other mental health reasons in each of the last five years.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Department of Health and Social Care: Staff

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department's total spend was on human resources in each of the last five years.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Department of Health and Social Care: Sick Leave

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many mental health-related sick day absences were taken by staff in his Department in each month since April 2022.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Department of Health and Social Care: Sick Leave

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the number of mental health-related sick days which were taken by departmental staff in each of the last five years.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Speech and Language Therapy: Vacancies

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the findings of a survey by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists published in April 2023 on (a) the average vacancy rates in speech and language therapy services and (b) the level of difficulty managers said they faced in recruiting to both children's and adults' services.

Helen Whately: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Occupational Therapy: Staff

Emma Hardy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Royal College of Occupational Therapist's Workforce survey report 2023, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of that report's findings; and whether he plans to steps to implement that report's recommendations.

Will Quince: To support the workforce as a whole we have commissioned NHS England to develop a Long Term Workforce Plan, which will include independently verified forecasts for the number of healthcare professionals required in future years.The Royal College of Occupational Therapy have had the opportunity to meet and share evidence with the NHS England team developing the Long Term Workforce Plan.The Government has and will continue to prioritise investment into the National Health Service. The Long Term Workforce plan will help ensure that we have the right numbers of staff, with the right skills to transform and deliver high quality services fit for the future.

NHS: Privatisation

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report published by The Lancet in July 2022 entitled Outsourcing health-care services to the private sector and treatable mortality rates in England, 2013–20: an observational study of NHS privatisation, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of that report's statement that its findings suggest further privatisation of the NHS might lead to worse population health outcomes; and if he will commission an investigation into the potential impact of the use of private health care providers by the NHS on mortality rates.

Will Quince: Independent sector providers have a significant role to play supporting the National Health Service as trusted partners to recover elective services. Use of the independent sector will support our efforts to tackle the backlog and get waiting lists down. All providers of healthcare are regulated by the Care Quality Commission and follow a set of fundamental standards of safety and quality. The Department considers a wide range of material when developing policies. We do not intend to make a specific assessment of this report, nor commission an investigation into the impact of private healthcare providers on mortality rates.

NHS: Protective Clothing

Royston Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the Government's PPE strategy will be published.

Royston Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has for the (a) disposal and (b) continued storage of PPE purchased for the UK and stored in China.

Royston Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking with Cabinet colleagues to increase UK manufacturing capacity of PPE.

Royston Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure imported PPE meets quality control and provides good value for public money.

Will Quince: Imported personal protective equipment (PPE) is now provided by suppliers appointed to NHS Supply Chain’s Single Use PPE framework agreement. Suppliers are appointed following a competitive tender process to ensure value for money. Every product on this framework is assessed, involving work with regulators, safety standards agencies and national experts who agree the safety standards and requirements that products must meet in order to be used in the National Health Service.From April 2022, responsibility for the operational management for retaining a pandemic stockpile of PPE transferred to NHS Supply Chain. Providers of PPE will be invited to become part of the procurement frameworks which NHS Supply Chain manages, and the current framework agreement includes a number of United Kingdom-based companies.The Government welcomes commitment from UK-based companies to produce high-quality PPE. UK-based manufacturers are likely to be crucial in the event of another pandemic, particularly in the face of any global supply chain issues. As of 31 March 2023, there were 12 million items of PPE remaining in storage in China. The remaining stock held in China is in categories of PPE for which the Department has sufficient stock in the UK to meet current demand, and the items were therefore surplus to requirements. In managing down the stock held in China we have made donations to other countries, but selling on surplus stock has not been financially viable for the Department. The remaining items now held in China are therefore being disposed of through incineration, with the aim of enabling an exit from this facility as soon as possible. The Department wrote to the Public Accounts Committee on 16 March 2023 setting out strategic aims for the Department in relation to PPE, including future supply.  The letter is available at the following link: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/34476/documents/189909/default/

Ministers: Conduct

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether any complaints were made against him by staff as (a) Secretary of State between 5 July 2022 and 6 September 2022 and (b) Minister of State between January 2018 to November 2018.

Will Quince: The Department has no record of any formal complaints made by staff in the Department against the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in his role between 5 July 2022 and 6 September 2022, or when he was a Minister of State between January 2018 to November 2018.

Endoscopy: Staff

Margaret Ferrier: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of clinical endoscopists working in the NHS.

Will Quince: To support the workforce as a whole we have commissioned NHS England to develop a Long Term Workforce Plan, which will include independently verified forecasts for the number of healthcare professionals required in future years. The Plan is for the whole of the National Health Service workforce. It will not provide detailed workforce assessments for individual services or for every staff group.

Ambulance Services: Emergency Calls

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the guidelines for (a) GPs, (b) community health technicians and (c) domiciliary social care providers on making serious incident reports about delayed ambulance responses to 999 calls; and if he will publish those guidelines.

Will Quince: No such assessment has been made by the Department. NHS England has published the Serious Incident Framework, which describes the process and procedures to help ensure serious incidents are identified correctly, investigated thoroughly, and learned from to prevent the likelihood of similar incidents happening again. The framework is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/patient-safety/serious-incident-framework/As outlined in the National Health Service patient safety strategy, the new Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) will replace the current Serious Incident Framework. There will be a 12-month period where organisations prepare for the transition to PSIRF, which we expect to be completed by Autumn 2023. During this preparation phase, organisations must continue using the current Serious Incident Framework.NHS England has published guidance on raising patient safety incidents reports, which can be found at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/patient-safety-incident-response-framework-and-supporting-guidance/This follows the introduction of the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF), which replaces the Serious Incidents Framework, and makes no distinction between ‘patient safety incidents’ and ‘Serious incidents’. The PSIRF sets out the NHS’s approach to developing and maintaining effective systems and processes for responding to patient safety incidents for the purpose of learning and improving patient safety.

Ambulance Services: Standards

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department provides to Ambulance Services about informing local (a) Primary Care Commissioning Committees, (b) Local Medical Committees and (c) groups of Integrated Care Boards about (i) serious incident reports and (ii) investigations arising from delays.

Will Quince: NHS England has published the Serious Incident Framework, which describes the process and procedures to help ensure serious incidents are identified correctly, investigated thoroughly, and learned from to prevent the likelihood of similar incidents happening again.The framework sets out that serious incidents must be reported by National Health Service providers, such as ambulance services, to their commissioners without delay. Where a serious incident indicates an issue that may have significant implications for the wider healthcare system, or where an incident may cause widespread public concern, the relevant commissioner must consider the need to share information throughout the system. Where the commissioner recognises the need to share information, they must liaise with and alert NHS England.As outlined in the NHS patient safety strategy, the new Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) will replace the current Serious Incident Framework. There will be a 12-month period where organisations prepare for the transition to PSIRF, which we expect to be completed by Autumn 2023. During this preparation phase, organisations must continue using the current Serious Incident Framework.NHS England has published guidance on raising patient safety incidents, which is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/patient-safety-incident-response-framework-and-supporting-guidance/The PSIRF sets out the NHS’s approach to developing and maintaining effective systems and processes for responding to patient safety incidents for the purpose of learning and improving patient safety.

Hospitals: Medical Records

Sir Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on what grounds a hospital can change its records regarding a patient's next of kin (a) after the patient has been admitted and (b) without the consent of the (i) patient and (ii) patient's next of kin as designated at the time of admission; and what processes are in place for (A) recording and (B) changing hospital records on a patient's next of kin.

Will Quince: National Health Service trusts may ask a patient to nominate their next of kin on admission to hospital. A hospital will not ordinarily change a patient’s next of kin unless the patient has requested this. In the event a patient does not have a next of kin, health professionals may use their discretion to liaise with family and friends to appoint one.If it is an emergency and it is unclear who the patient’s next of kin is, and the patient is unable to communicate their choice, the hospital will normally seek advice from the person they believe is closest to the patient and allocate one. Where the next of kin has been changed, both the general practice and hospital records would be duly updated.NHS England provides further information on amending patient and service user records, which is available at the following link:https://transform.england.nhs.uk/information-governance/guidance/amending-patient-and-service-user-records/

Treatment Centres

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of increasing independent sector provision for elective recovery on health inequalities.

Will Quince: When commissioning services, we expect NHS England and integrated care boards to uphold their duties to consider and deliver equalities under the Equality Act 2010, and to reduce inequalities under the National Health Service Act 2006 and Health and Care Act 2022.No specific assessment has been made of independent sector provision and health inequalities.

Integrated Care Systems

Sir George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the impact on patients of the creation and implementation of Integrated Care Systems.

Helen Whately: The Department is focussed on ensuring that integrated care systems (ICSs) have a positive impact on patients, and this will be a key part of Care Quality Commission (CQC) reviews of ICSs. CQC ICS reviews will enable us to provide independent assurance to the public of the quality of care and improved outcomes for people in their area.In addition, we are commissioning research to understand the different ways that system partners are coming together to design, commission and deliver services and fulfil their duties, and the potential impacts.

Kidney Diseases: North West

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people were living with chronic kidney disease with classification of categories G3a to G5 in (a) Ellesmere Port and (b) the area served by the NHS Cheshire and Merseyside integrated care board in each year since 2019.

Helen Whately: Data is not held for Ellesmere Port. Data is available for the NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board from 2020/21 onwards. The following table shows the number of people with chronic kidney disease with classification of categories G3a to G5 in the area served by the NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board since 2020/21.YearNHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board2020/2199,7512021/22102,935 The information for 2019/20 is not available due to the integrated care board not existing at that time.

Liver Diseases: Health Services

Peter Dowd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to include provisions for (a) treatment of liver cancer and (b) tackling hepatitis C as a cause of liver cancer in the forthcoming Major Conditions Strategy.

Helen Whately: The Major Conditions Strategy will look at the treatment and prevention of cancer in people of all ages, covering the patient pathway. The Strategy will look at a wide range of interventions and enablers to improve outcomes and experience for cancer patients.This Strategy will draw on previous work on cancer, including over 5,000 submissions provided to the Department as part of our Call for Evidence last year. We will continue to work closely with stakeholders, citizens and the National Health Service in coming weeks to identify actions for the Strategy that will have the most impact.

Radiology: Paediatrics

Sir George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will meet with representatives of the Royal College of Radiologists to discuss the findings and recommendations of their report entitled Improving Paediatric Interventional Radiology services in the UK, published in April 2023.

Helen Whately: I would be pleased to meet with the Royal College of Radiologists to discuss their recent report into paediatric interventional radiology.

Radiology: Paediatrics

Sir George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring all hospitals that provide paediatric services to have paediatric interventional radiology service policies.

Helen Whately: The Department will discuss these issues with NHS England. National Health Service trusts are expected to have the relevant policies in place, in line with service specification and commissioning guidance produced by NHS England.

Diabetes: North West

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of people with diabetes in (a) Ellesmere Port and (b) NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB have had a urine-to-albumin ratio test in the last year.

Helen Whately: The following table shows the proportion of people with diabetes in Ellesmere Port and NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board who have received a urine-to-albumin ratio test between January 2021 and March 2022. LocationDiabetes typeType 1Type 2 and otherEllesmere PortTotal number of people with diabetes4905,550Urine-to-albumin ratio test1753,050Percentage35.70%55.00%NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care BoardTotal number of people with diabetes12,295143,845Urine-to-albumin ratio test5,1203,289,925Percentage41.60%50.30% Notes:Locations are represented in the National Diabetes Audit (NDA) dataset using the Lower Layer Super Output Area of the person in the audit year. A direct mapping of these geographies to a specific town does not exist, meaning that, while the figures provided for Ellesmere Port are likely close to the true value, they should not be considered exact.Disclosure control has been applied to all figures, as per the NDA publication – all numbers are rounded to the nearest 5, unless the number is 1 to 7, in which case it is rounded to 5.Diabetes type is reported as ‘Type 1’ and ‘Type 2 and other’ within the NDA.‘Type 1’ includes where a person is recorded as having Type 1 diabetes in the NDA.‘Type 2 and other’ includes where a person is recorded as having Type 2 diabetes, Maturity-onset Diabetes of the Young, other or non-specified diabetes in the NDA.

Respite Care

Kim Leadbeater: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of providers of respite care that have closed since January 2022; and what steps he is taking to support those providers and ensure local respite care provision is protected.

Helen Whately: The Department does not hold data for the number of respite care providers that have been deregistered.Local authorities are best placed to assess local resources and need, distributing their funding based on local population needs and regional issues. They should have contingency plans in place where needed, particularly if services are to close. If services close, local authorities should provide information and advice on alternative care to support people affected by any service changes. We continue to work closely with local authorities and the adult social care sector to understand the impact of cost and demand pressures on service delivery.

Heart Diseases: Artificial Intelligence

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of when an artificial intelligence programme for the detection of heart disease will be widely available on the NHS.

Helen Whately: The Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award has provided £123 million to 86 artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The Award was created to accelerate the testing and evaluation of some of the most promising AI technologies that can support clinicians in stroke diagnosis, cancer screening and managing conditions at home. Some of these technologies being tested could support clinicians in diagnosing and treating heart disease. For example, iRhythm's Zio uses AI to help diagnose abnormal or irregular heart rhythms more quickly. Results from this trial are expected to be published in September 2023. Caristo’s CaRi-Heart uses AI to analyse CT scans to detect inflammation in the heart and predict a patient’s risk from a heart attack. This could help clinicians identify more people with cardiovascular disease and provide preventative treatments sooner. Results from this trial are expected to be published before the end of 2023. Ultromics’ EchGo uses AI to help analyse images of the heart, which could diagnose heart failure and coronary artery disease earlier and faster. Results from this trial are expected to be published early next year.

Integrated Care Boards

Sir George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that integrated care boards share best practice.

Helen Whately: The Department has produced national guidance to support integrated care systems (ICSs) in establishing best practice, such as developing integrated care strategies. The Department facilitates shared learning and best practice, including via established forums. The Care Quality Commission assessments of ICSs will enable best practice to be identified and shared.

Dental Services

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of NHS patients using primary and secondary health services as a result of not being able to access the dental health services they required in each of the last five years.

Neil O'Brien: The information is not held centrally.

Radiology: Paediatrics

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure equal access to paediatric interventional radiology services in the UK.

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on (a) improving access to paediatric interventional radiology services and (b) ensuring all hospitals have a strategy to deal with out-of-hours emergencies requiring paediatric interventional radiologists.

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the ratio of the number of paediatric interventional radiologists to the number of children.

Helen Whately: The Department will discuss these issues with NHS England.

Medical Treatments and Technology

Sir George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support Integrated Care Systems' (a) provision of effective care and treatments and (b) use of medical and health technologies.

Helen Whately: To ensure people get effective care and treatment, the Department and NHS England have set out recovery plans for elective and urgent and emergency care. We will also soon publish a Primary Care Recovery plan that will set out how general practices and Primary Care Networks can be supported to improve access.The new medical technology (MedTech) strategy published in February identifies, as a key priority, the need to streamline the innovation pipeline to ensure effective technology can be adopted at scale.We continue to provide investment across a range of technology to support integrated care systems, including new community diagnostics centres, virtual wards and accelerated decision making through adoption of new artificial intelligence tools.

Lung Diseases: Screening

Taiwo Owatemi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many scans have been performed at each Targeted Lung Health Check sites since roll-out.

Helen Whately: This information is not held centrally.

Lung Diseases: Screening

Taiwo Owatemi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 February 2023 to Question 147189 on Lung Diseases: Screening, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of targeted lung health checks in England in 2023-24; and how much funding his Department is providing to local services for this purpose.

Helen Whately: Targeted Lung Health Checks are now live in 42 locations. Coverage of the programme will continue to expand in 2023/24. The exact amount of funding put into this project is not held by the Department.

Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis

Peter Dowd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support he is providing for people with (a) Crohn’s disease and (b) colitis.

Helen Whately: NHS England is working closely with key stakeholders, including Crohn’s and Colitis UK, to finalise the NHS RightCare scenario on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In addition, the Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) specialty report on gastroenterology, published in September 2021, sets out actions and recommendations for the National Health Service to improve patient care and ensure consistency of care across the country. In November 2022, GIRFT and the Outpatient Recovery and Transformation programme published Clinically-led Specialty Outpatient Guidance supporting 15 specialties, including gastroenterology, with guidance for services to help tackle escalating demand for outpatient appointments. The focus of these actions covered areas such as remote consultations, reducing did-not-attends and implementing patient-initiated follow-up, all of which are particularly helpful for patients with IBD.

Kidney Diseases: North West

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people were diagnosed with chronic kidney disease in each year since 2019 in (a) Ellesmere Port and (b) NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB.

Helen Whately: The requested data is not held in the format requested.

Ovarian Cancer: Health Education

Munira Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to raise awareness of the symptoms of ovarian cancer.

Helen Whately: To encourage people to get in touch with their general practitioner if they notice or are worried about symptoms that could be cancer, NHS England is running the ‘Help Us, Help You’ campaigns. Multiple phases of the campaign have had a focus on abdominal symptoms which, among other abdominal cancers, can be indicative of ovarian cancer. Also, NHS England funded a series of community engagement events coordinated by a cluster of gynaecological cancer charities, led by Target Ovarian Cancer.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Carol Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to publish the cross-Government delivery plan on ME/CFS for England.

Helen Whately: The Department plans to publish a draft delivery plan on ME/CFS shortly. We intend to seek views on the draft plan before publishing a final delivery plan at a later date.

Medical Equipment: Technology

Sir George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his department will to ensure that patients have access to the most effective medical technology and health technology regardless of where they live.

Will Quince: The Medical Technology (MedTech) Strategy, published in February 2023, aims to ensure that everyone has timely access to safe, effective and innovative medical technologies when they need it, no matter where they live in the country.A number of initiatives are in development, including identification of technology suitable to be adopted at scale, wider multi-tech evaluations by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to identify effective technology, and expansion of outcome registries across England to improve visibility over unwarranted variation. This work will be supported by the establishment of national clinical leadership councils, to advise on the best products, and promote consistency across the National Health Service to see the best products reaching patients.We are also promoting meaningful choice of MedTech in the community, making it easier for patients, healthcare professionals or purchasers to compare, contrast and select the most appropriate products.

NHS: Drugs

Emma Hardy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government takes to respond to complaints on the reliability of homecare medicines services.

Emma Hardy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department are taking to improve the quality of homecare medicines services.

Emma Hardy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people with (a) arthritis and (b) other long-term conditions who receive homecare medicines services (i) receive medicine doses and (ii) other treatment promptly.

Emma Hardy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help address feedback raised by patients in NHS reviews; and what steps he is taking to improve homecare medicines services.

Will Quince: National Homecare Medicines Committee (NHMC) regional lead members and NHS England Commercial Medicines Unit use and reference the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Standards for homecare medicines service, which are embedded into all framework agreement service specifications for the providers of this service. These professional standards provide a broad framework which support teams involved in homecare services to deliver a safe, effective and quality-driven service for patients. These standards can be found at the following link: https://www.rpharms.com/Portals/0/RPS%20document%20library/Open%20access/Professional%20standards/Professional%20standards%20for%20Homecare%20services/homecare-standards-final-sept-13.pdf In 2014, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society published the Handbook for Homecare Services in England to aid implementation of these standards. This identified examples of good practice which may be used by homecare teams to develop robust arrangements for compliance with those standards. The NHMC holds regular meetings with all homecare providers focused on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for standards based on those contained in Appendix 10 National KPI definitions of the Handbook for Homecare Services in England.Homecare providers are assessed on a monthly basis against their KPIs at a national level for NHS England framework agreements and at a regional level for National Health Service regional contracting, and more formally on a regular basis through face-to-face meetings with NHMC and NHS England. The quality assurance and governance process covers the monitoring of patients’ adverse events, complaints and incidents.When the KPIs from individual contracts or reports from NHS hospitals indicate that service levels are not to the high standard expected, the NHMC Supplier Engagement sub-group has an escalation process.Each Chief Pharmacist within each NHS organisation is the responsible officer for the homecare medicines services that the hospital provides. Where the escalation process is in place, the affected homecare provider will engage with this process and provide communication to each NHS organisation with a summary of the issues, mitigations and expected timescales for recovery. If necessary, the regulators, the Care Quality Commission and the General Pharmaceutical Council, are also informed.

Prescriptions: Fees and Charges

Dave Doogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 19 April 2023 to Question 904619 on Prescription Drugs, how much money the Government raises net from the approximately 10 per cent of prescriptions which are charged at the point of use after the actual cost of processing prescription charges has been deducted.

Neil O'Brien: The revenue generated from prescription charges in 2021/22 was £652 million. Processing costs are not separately identified as a matter of routine as these costs are incorporated into broader transaction processing costs between the NHS Business Services Authority and community pharmacy, therefore the net income after processing costs is not held centrally.

Medical Records: Databases

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support his Department is providing to trusts to put electronic patient records in place.

Will Quince: We are providing targeted funding and support to National Health Service trusts to help them level up to a core level of digitisation. Trusts that are less digitally mature will get more funding and support.

NHS Blood and Transplant: Languages

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the answer of 17 April 2023 to Question 175672 on Blood, what the evidential basis is for NHS Blood and Transplant producing literature relating to donations in Yiddish and Hebrew.

Neil O'Brien: NHS Blood and Transplant have published literature in several languages to specifically communicate the change in law for organ donation to an opt-out system in May 2020. These included materials in Yiddish.

Electronic Cigarettes: Sales

Royston Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's press release, Crackdown on illegal sale of vapes, published on 9 April 2023, what his planned timescale is for the (a) appointment and (b) launch of the illicit vapes enforcement squad; which Department the new team will sit under; whether it will be affiliated to a Government agency; and whether he plans to publish reports on the work and progress of the squad.

Neil O'Brien: The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities within the Department is currently designing the scope and delivery mechanism for the new illicit vaping enforcement squad. We are working closely with a range of organisations including Trading Standards, the Office of Product and Safety Standards, Border Force and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, who will help deliver the programme over the next two years. We will provide further details, including on timelines, monitoring and reporting, in due course.

NHS: Drugs

Emma Hardy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has held discussions with the (a) National Homecare Medicines Committee, (b) Care Quality Commission and (c) General Pharmaceutical Council on the British Society for Rheumatology's views on the safety and performance of homecare medicines services.

Emma Hardy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department’s planned timescale is to recruit a new Chair of the National Homecare Medicines Committee; and whether the Committee plans to continue to meet in the interim period.

Will Quince: The Department is aware of the British Society for Rheumatology’s (BSR) concerns about the homecare medicines service. Providers of homecare medicine services to National Health Service patients do so under framework agreements which may be held at national, regional or local level. This therefore requires a high degree of centralised co-ordination for which the National Homecare Medicines Committee (NHMC) supports and advises the NHS. The Committee liaises with homecare providers through their trade association, the National Clinical Homecare Association (NCHA), to support and co-ordinate development of the homecare market and discuss any system-wide issues.The NHMC and the NCHA have met with the BSR to discuss their concerns about the safety and performance of homecare medicines services. Proposals are currently being discussed between the parties to establish a formal, ongoing dialogue which may also include representation from other medical specialties and stakeholders.The NHMC appointed a new chair to start on the 1 May 2023. NHMC meetings will continue to be undertaken in line with their terms of reference.

Genomics: Health Services

Liz Twist: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to address the backlog in NHS Genomics Medicines Service.

Liz Twist: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to review the process for genome testing in the NHS to address delays in getting diagnostic test results.

Will Quince: Minimising the time taken to deliver a genomic test is a key priority for NHS England. NHS England has implemented a monthly data collection and monitoring system across all seven Genomic Laboratory Hubs (GLHs) to better identify variation, implement service improvements and to ensure agreed national turnaround times are met in every region for all patients.The COVID-19 pandemic has had an ongoing impact on the genomic testing pathway. NHS England are providing the GLHs with additional funding to support recovery and reduce backlogs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.GLHs are also undertaking clinical risk assessments on all cases waiting for results so that any can be prioritised for early reporting as needed.Clinicians are also able to classify cases as ‘urgent’ when a patient has a deteriorating or unstable condition that requires a quicker diagnosis.

Dentistry

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number of dentists who are on the General Dental Council register but who are not regularly carrying out (a) NHS work and (b) dentistry work.

Neil O'Brien: The General Dental Council (GDC) is the independent statutory regulator of dentists and dental care professionals in the United Kingdom. As such, it holds a register of qualified dental professionals. It does not, however, hold data on whether a registrant is actively practising, either in the National Health Service or privately. The NHS Dental Statistics for England, 2021/22, Annual Report estimates that 24,272 dentists performed NHS activity during 2021/22, an increase of 539 on the previous year. However, the report does not specify the frequency of this activity.

Obesity: Children and Young People

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of funding a programme to provide wearable fitness trackers for children and young people who are obese (a) from areas of deprivation and (b) nationally.

Neil O'Brien: No specific assessment has been made.

Health: Screening

Munira Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of people aged 50-74 who have not received an invitation for an NHS Health Check from their local authority in the last ten years.

Neil O'Brien: No estimate has been made.

Dentistry: Migrant Workers

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the training and professional development required of internationally recruited dentists who carry out NHS work.

Neil O'Brien: The General Dental Council (GDC) holds the statutory responsibility for regulating dentistry, including setting standards that must be met by all dentists wishing to be added to the United Kingdom dental register. The GDC’s legislation requires overseas applicants to undertake an exam for the purposes of confirming they have the requisite skills and knowledge to practise dentistry in the UK.

Dietetics

Sarah Owen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of extending full independent prescribing responsibilities to clinical dietitians.

Neil O'Brien: We have no current plans to make an assessment. Dietitians can already supply and administer medicines under Patient Group Directions and train to use supplementary prescribing.

GP Practice Lists

Janet Daby: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the average number of patients registered with GP surgeries in (a) Lewisham East constituency, (b) the London Borough of Lewisham and (c) England in each year since 2010.

Neil O'Brien: This information requested is not held centrally. Such data as is available on the number of patients registered at general practices in England is available at the following link:https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-tools-and-services/data-services/general-practice-data-hub/patients-registered-at-a-gp-practice

Department of Health and Social Care: Procurement

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 March 2023 to Question 169238 on Department of Health and Social Care: Procurement, how many times operators have (a) confirmed that there has been any instance of grave professional misconduct which could render its integrity questionable and (b) been excluded from a contract procurement as a result of that misconduct since 2016; and if he will list those prospective operators.

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 March 2023 to Question 169238 on Department of Health and Social Care: Procurement, whether this includes cases where the jurisdiction in which the grave misconduct occurred included jurisdictions outside the UK.

Will Quince: There is no record on the Department’s current procurement and contracts database, which holds information going back to June 2020, of bidders declaring they have been in receipt of enforcement or remedial orders in relation to grave professional misconduct. Information from the standard Selection Questionnaires bidders are required to complete prior to June 2020 is held on archived database systems, and retrieving this information would involve manual searches which would exceed the disproportionate cost threshold.The question concerning grave professional misconduct appears on the standard Selection Questionnaire bidders are required to complete and is used for all procurement exercises above the relevant threshold, including where suppliers are based outside of the United Kingdom.

General Practitioners: Standards

Janet Daby: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what target his Department sets GP surgeries for offering appointments to patients.

Janet Daby: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many times GP surgeries in (a) Lewisham East constituency and (b) the London Borough of Lewisham have failed to meet targets for offering appointments to patients in each year since 2010.

Neil O'Brien: The Department has not set a target. General practices (GPs) are required to provide services to meet the reasonable needs of the patients registered at their practice. The Government has also set an expectation that patients who need an appointment with their GP within two weeks should get one, and that patients with urgent needs should be seen on the same day.

Department of Health and Social Care: Water

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on achieving water neutrality on his Department’s estate.

Will Quince: The Department is committed to reducing its water consumption in line with Greening Government Commitments targets. Between 2014/15 and 2020/21 it reduced its water consumption by 48.6%.

Health Services: Waiting Lists

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients have been waiting for more than 18 months for treatment on an NHS waiting list in Stockport constituency.

Will Quince: Information on the number of National Health Service patients waiting more than 18 months for treatment is not available at a constituency level.

Human Papillomavirus: Vaccination

John Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the HPV vaccination rate.

Maria Caulfield: The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme is delivered in different locations to maximise access and make getting vaccinated easier. This includes school-based delivery, with alternative sites set up for those not in mainstream education, or for those who missed their initial offer. HPV vaccinations are also offered to men who have sex with men aged up to and including 45-year-olds, through Specialist Sexual Health Services and/or HIV clinics. General practices (GPs) also offer HPV catch-up vaccinations for anyone eligible, until their 25th birthday.Additionally, the Department, NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency deliver communication campaigns across GPs and universities to encourage people to get vaccinated. It is vitally important that everyone takes up the vaccinations to which they are entitled, for themselves, their families and wider society. Anyone unsure about their eligibility or vaccination status should contact their GP for advice.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time is for adults (a) to be assessed and (b) to receive treatment for ADHD.

Maria Caulfield: I refer the Rt hon. Member to the answer I gave on 5 April 2023 to Question 175511.

Health Services: Standards

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many serious incident root causes analysis investigations were not closed within 60 days (a) nationally (b) in Yorkshire and (c) in York in (i) 2021, (ii) 2022 and (iii) 2023.

Maria Caulfield: NHS England does not hold the information requested. Serious Incidents are reported to the Strategic Executive Information System (StEIS). Compliance with the 60-day closure of serious incident investigations is not routinely monitored by NHS England. As such, a bespoke analysis and report would be needed to provide the requested information. The expectation set by the Serious Incident Framework is that Serious Incident investigation reports are to be completed within 60 working days where possible. This is overseen by commissioners, who complete necessary processes to close these incidents on StEIS, and reviewed by the Care Quality Commission as part of their regulatory role. NHS England does not hold or report on this data for England. In relation to Yorkshire and York, information relating to serious incidents will be held by providers and the relevant integrated care board.

Mobocertinib

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the drug Mobocertinib will be available on the NHS.

Will Quince: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for developing evidence-based recommendations on whether drugs represent a clinically and cost-effective use of National Health Service resources. The NHS in England is legally required to fund all medicines NICE recommends, usually within three months of final guidance, and cancer drugs are eligible for funding through the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) immediately after NICE issues positive draft guidance.NICE published final draft guidance recommending mobocertinib for the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer after platinum-based chemotherapy in adults whose tumours have epidermal growth factor receptor exon 20 insertion mutations on 16 November 2022. It is therefore routinely available for clinicians to prescribe to eligible NHS patients in line with NICE’s recommendations, having been previously funded through the CDF.

Social Services: Private Sector

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of seizing the assets of private care companies found to have significant safeguarding failures.

Maria Caulfield: No assessment has been made. The Care Quality Commission has a range of enforcement powers and can take action in line with its published enforcement policy against providers that are not meeting the fundamental standards of care.

Autism: Diagnosis

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time is for an autism assessment for adults in (a) Stockport constituency, (b) Stockport Borough, (c) Greater Manchester and (d) England.

Maria Caulfield: The data requested is not held centrally. However, some relevant information can be drawn from the Mental Health Service Data Set (MHSDS). Data from the MHSDS for the period from 1 August 2021 to 31 July 2022 indicates that, for England, 60,860 patients aged 18 and over at the time of referral had an open referral for suspected autism. Of these 8,309 have received a first attended contact within the year. The median wait time for these 8,309 patients was 127 days. For Greater Manchester, 2,270 patients had an open referral for suspected autism. Of these, 170 have received a first attended contact within the year. The median wait time for these 170 patients was 129 days. For Stockport, 65 patients had an open referral for suspected autism. Of these, 10 have received a first attended contact within the year. The median wait time for these 10 patients was 994 days.

Coronavirus: Vaccination

Sir Christopher Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Yellow Card reports citing (a) immune thrombocytopenia and (b) low platelet counts as possible adverse effects from covid-19 vaccinations were received by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in (a) January, (b) February and (c) March 2021.

Maria Caulfield: Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an adverse event of special interest for COVID-19 vaccines and was under enhanced monitoring from the start of the United Kingdom immunisation programme. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency first received a report of suspected ITP following COVID-19 vaccination in late December 2020.No spontaneous suspected adverse reaction reports were received through the Yellow Card scheme for ITP or Thrombocytopenic purpura in January 2021, 26 reports were received in February 2021 and 62 reports were received in March 2021.9 spontaneous suspected adverse reaction reports were received through the Yellow Card scheme for Thrombocytopenia in January 2021, 15 reports were received in February 2021 and 124 reports were received in March 2021.No spontaneous suspected adverse reaction reports were received through the Yellow Card scheme for decreased Platelet count in January 2021, 9 reports were received in February 2021 and 56 reports were received in March 2021.It should be noted that the sum of suspected adverse reactions above will not equal the number of Yellow Card reports, due to some reports containing more than one adverse reaction.

Air Pollution: Death

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 20 of the UK Health Security Agency report entitled Chemical hazards and poisons report, Issue 28, published in June 2022, how many attributable deaths there were in (a) East Midlands, (b) East of England, (c) Greater London, (d) North East, (e) North West, (f) South East, (g) South West, (h) West Midlands, (i) Yorkshire and the Humber and (j) England for nitrogen dioxide NO2 in 2019.

Maria Caulfield: The numbers of attributable deaths due to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) for the listed areas have not been calculated. The most recent estimates of mortality burden associated with exposure to air pollution in the United Kingdom take into account exposure to the air pollution mixture of NO2 and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and are published in the UK Health Security Agency Chemical Hazards and Poisons Report (2022), which is available at the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1083447/CHaPR_AQ_Special_Edition_2206116.pdf The burden of long-term exposure to air pollution in 2019 in the UK was estimated to be an effect equivalent to 29,000 to 43,000 deaths for adults aged 30 years old and over.

Air Pollution: Death

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 20 of the UK Health Security Agency report entitled Chemical Hazards and Poisons Report, Issue 28, published in June 2022, how many attributable deaths there were in (a) East Midlands, (b) East of England, (c) Greater London, (d) North East, (e) North West, (f) South East, (g) South West, (h) West Midlands, (i) Yorkshire and the Humber and (j) England for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in 2019.

Maria Caulfield: The information is not held in the format requested. The following table shows the fraction of mortality attributable to particulate air pollution, measured as fine particulate matter, PM2.5, for 2019, in each region as a percentage.Region2019East Midlands7.4East of England7.6Greater London8.8North East4.9North West6.2South East7.2South West5.9West Midlands7.3Yorkshire and the Humber6.6England7.1 The numbers of attributable deaths have not been calculated; the provided values represent the percentage of annual deaths from all causes in those aged 30 and older.

Death: Greater London

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 25 April 2023 to Question 181820 on Air Pollution: Death, how many adult deaths there were from (a) heart disease, (b) stroke, (c) chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, (d) lung cancer and (e) dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in Greater London in each year since 2016.

Maria Caulfield: UK Health Security Agency has not calculated the proportion of adult deaths related to these outcomes due to air pollution in Greater London. However, the following table shows the fraction of mortality attributable to particulate air pollution estimates, measured as fine particulate matter, PM2.5, as available in English Local Authorities and regions annually. The methods and data inputs were updated in 2018, therefore estimates for Greater London are provided in the table below from 2018 until 2021. Estimates are available before 2018 but are not directly comparable.Fraction of mortality attributable to particulate air pollutionYearRegion2018201920202021Greater London9.0 %8.8 %7.1 %6.5 %

Health Services: Women

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to implement the policies set out in the Women’s Health Strategy for England, published on 30 August 2022.

Maria Caulfield: In January the Department set out its eight priorities for the first year of implementing the Women’s Health Strategy, July 2022 to July 2023, in a letter to MPs. Good progress is being made to deliver these priorities. For example, recently, the Department has reduced the cost of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) prescriptions through a bespoke HRT prescription pre-payment certificate. From 1 April 2023, women can pay a one-off charge equivalent to two single prescription charges (£19.30) for all their HRT prescriptions for a year.We are also investing £25 million in women’s health hubs, so that women can get better access to care for essential services such as menstrual problems, contraception and the menopause. We will update Parliament annually on progress, with the first update due in September 2023.

Depressive Illnesses: Mental Health Services

Peter Dowd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care,  if he will publish NHS data on access to Talking Therapies for Anxiety and Depression through the long-term conditions pathway by condition.

Maria Caulfield: NHS England publishes data on referrals to NHS Talking Therapies for those with long-term conditions in the NHS Talking Therapies Annual Report. The data provides details of integrated referrals at England level for 2021/22 split by selected long term conditions. The report is available at the following link:https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/psychological-therapies-annual-reports-on-the-use-of-iapt-services/annual-report-2021-22

Health Visitors: Vacancies

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of the shortage of health visitors on (a) children with special educational needs and disabilities and (b) other vulnerable children.

Maria Caulfield: It is the responsibility of local authority commissioners and their service provider to determine health visitor numbers, based on local health needs. Guidance is that health visitor-led needs assessments should determine interventions or referrals for children with special education needs and disabilities or other vulnerabilities.

Maternity Disparities Taskforce

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will revise the Terms of Reference for the Maternity Disparities Task Force in order to ensure they (a) adequately reflect the multiple and complex reasons underlying those disparities and (b) explicitly mention racism.

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will require the Maternity Disparities Task Force to publish clear and measurable success metrics.

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to (a) ensure ethnicity data is effectively gathered and (b) reduce delays in data delivery to help tackle disparities in maternal health.

Maria Caulfield: We updated the Women and Equalities Select Committee via correspondence about various aspects of the Maternal Disparities taskforce in March. The questions raised within these Parliamentary Questions are taken from the recommendations within the Women and Equalities Select Committee Report on Black maternal Health, which was published on 18 April 2023. We will consider the findings and recommendations made by the Women and Equalities Select Committee and publish our response in due course. We take the contents of this report very seriously and remain committed to tackling maternal inequalities and improving equity for mothers and babies. We will continue work to make the National Health Service one of the best places in the world to give birth by offering mothers and babies better support and safer care.While births in England are among the safest globally, we must do more to ensure maternity care is consistent regardless of race. To address this, Local Maternity and Neonatal Systems have begun to publish Equity and Equality Action Plans to tackle disparities in outcomes and experiences of maternity care at a local level. The Maternity Disparities Taskforce, which last met on 18 April, brings together experts from across the health system, Government Departments and the voluntary sector to explore and consider evidence-based interventions to tackle maternal disparities.

Surrogacy

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department to prevent the commodification of surrogacy.

Maria Caulfield: The Surrogacy Arrangements Act (1985) sets out provisions to ensure that surrogacy arrangements and surrogacy organisations are not-for-profit and prohibits the advertising of anyone willing to be a surrogate or anyone seeking a surrogate in the United Kingdom.The Law Commissions of England & Wales and Scotland published a report and draft bill of their review of the surrogacy legislation on 29 March 2023. The report’s recommendations reiterate that surrogacy should continue to operate in the UK on an altruistic, rather than a commercial, basis. The Government is considering the report and will publish a response in due course.

IVF

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether IVF is available to couples on the NHS if one partner in that couple has a child from a former relationship.

Maria Caulfield: Funding decisions for health services in England, including IVF, are made by integrated care boards (ICBs) and are based on the clinical needs of their local population. We expect these organisations to commission fertility services in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines, ensuring equal access to fertility treatment across England.We are aware that some ICBs apply non-clinical access criteria to National Health Service fertility treatment, such as one partner having a child from a previous relationship.The Women’s Health Strategy was published on 20 July 2022 and contained a number of important changes and future ambitions to improve the variations in access to NHS-funded fertility services. As part of this work, we will work with NHS England to assess fertility provision across ICBs with a view to removing non-clinical access criteria.

Dental Services: North West

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time was for an orthodontist referral in Cheshire and Wirral in the latest period for which data is available.

Neil O'Brien: The current average waiting time for an orthodontist in Cheshire is two and a half years, and just over two years in Wirral. Not all referrals to an orthodontist will be eligible for National Health Service treatment. NHS orthodontic treatment is free for people under the age of 18 years old with a clear health need and assessed as meeting the criteria for NHS treatment.

Public Health: Pay

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 25 April 2023 to Question 181666, whether his Department plans to provide funding to increase pay for public health staff employed by local authorities by 3.5 per cent.

Neil O'Brien: In 2023/24, we are providing each local authority with a 3.3% cash terms increase in the public health grant.This is part of a wider package of public health investment, including work to improve the Start for Life offer and support improvements in the quality and capacity of drug and alcohol treatment, which will in total deliver a real terms increase of more than 5% in Departmental investment in local authority public health grants over the next two years.

Veterans: Mental Health Services

Rachel Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 104 of the Armed Forces Covenant and Veterans annual report 2022, published on 19 December 2022, what the average waiting times were for (a) Transition, Intervention and Liaison Services and (b) Complex Treatment Services under Op Courage by Clinical Commissioning Group area.

Maria Caulfield: The information is not held in the format requested.

Mental Health Services: Children

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the increase in child referrals for mental health care in 2021-22 shown by NHS statistics.

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of trends in the number of children referred for mental health care.

Maria Caulfield: We are committed to increasing investment into mental health services by at least £2.3 billion a year by March 2024 and have set out our aim in the NHS Long Term Plan for an additional 345,000 children and young people to be able to get the mental health support they need. We therefore expect to see referrals rise as services expand their capacity.As part of this expansion, we are rolling out mental health support teams in schools and colleges. As of spring 2022 there were 287 mental health support teams in place in over 4,700 schools and colleges across the country, offering support to children experiencing anxiety, depression, and other common mental health issues. Mental health support teams now cover 26% of pupils, a year earlier than originally planned, and this should have increased to 399 teams in April 2023, expected to cover around 35% of pupils, with over 500 planned to be up and running by 2024.In recognition of the rising demand created by the pandemic, we invested £79 million extra in 2021/22 to significantly expand children’s mental health services, including enabling at least 2,000 more children and young people to access eating disorder services. NHS England also announced a further £40 million in 2021/22 to address the COVID-19 impact on children and young people’s mental health.

Cabinet Office

Government Departments: Proof of Identity

Alex Sobel: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of recognising the disabled person's bus pass as an official form of identification across Government services.

Alex Burghart: Each individual government service decides what constitutes acceptable forms of identification, based on the requirements of the service. In Cabinet Office, Government Digital Service, in collaboration with other government departments, is developing a single sign-on and identity verification service, named GOV.UK One Login. One Login will allow people to create and reuse a digital identity to access public services. One Login’s secure and robust identity checking process currently accepts two forms of photographic documentation: passports and driving licences. We recognise that not everyone has a passport or driving licence and therefore, over time, we will implement other ways for users to verify their identity when using GOV.UK One Login. This is to ensure as many people as possible can access the services they need online. This will involve reviewing options to use the disabled persons bus pass in due course.

Capita: Cybercrime

John Healey: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether any personal information of (a) civilian and (b) military personnel working at (i) fire and rescue services, (ii) the submarine training facility and (iii) other Capita defence sites were affected by the cyber attack against Capita on 31 March 2023.

John Healey: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 24 April to Question 181691, on Capita: Cybercrime, when he expects his Department's investigation into the Capita cyber attack to conclude.

John Healey: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, on what date the cyber attack against Capita on 31 March 2023 was reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

John Healey: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the cyber attack against Capita on discovered on 31 March 2023, whether his Department has identified any personal information of defence personnel for sale online following that incident.

John Healey: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the cyber attack against Capita discovered on 31 March 2023, what personal data was accessed following this attack.

John Healey: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the cyber attack against Capita on 31 March 2023, whether his Department believe Russian hackers were responsible for the incident.

Jeremy Quin: The Cabinet Office, the Financial Conduct Authority and the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) are working with Capita to understand any risks to government data following the incident in March. Investigations, including client consultation are ongoing and it would not be appropriate to comment on the detail for security reasons.

Cabinet Office: Official Hospitality and Travel

Christine Jardine: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish a breakdown of spending on travel, subsistence and hospitality by his Department in (a) 2020-21 and (b) 2021-22.

Jeremy Quin: Details of ministerial and senior official travel and hospitality are published on a quarterly basis, and are available on GOV.UK.

Government Departments: Catering

Christine Jardine: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much each Department spent on food bought for in-house catering in each of the last five years.

Jeremy Quin: The Cabinet Office does not hold a central list for in-house catering for all departments. Collecting this data would therefore exceed the disproportionate cost threshold to estimate this figure.

Government Departments: Public Expenditure

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the data used by his Department's transaction explorer to analyse the cost of delivering Government services has been updated since the introduction of the explorer; and whether he plans to update this data in the next two years.

Alex Burghart: The Transactions Explorer was merged into the Performance Platform in 2015. The data on costs was collected quarterly from 2012 until 2018. The Performance Platform was decommissioned in 2021. Cost per transaction remains a mandatory performance indicator in the Digital Service Standard so digital services must publish data on it, typically via Data.gov.uk. For the Top 75 government services identified in Transforming for a Digital Future, the cross-government digital and data strategy for 2022-2025 published in June 2022, we have developed the new performance framework for services. This also includes cost per transaction metrics and the framework will be published shortly following engagement with the departments involved.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Dogs: Imports

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans her Department has to publish feedback on its consultation on changes to rules for the import of dogs.

Rebecca Pow: We are carefully reviewing the feedback gathered from our consultation and wider engagement with stakeholders, and a summary will be published in due course.

National Farmers Union

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she last met with the National Farmers Union.

Mark Spencer: The Secretary of State met with the NFU President, Minette Batters, on 26 April.

Water: Pollution

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information her Department holds on the amount of sludge that water companies removed during drinking water treatment and released into the environment in each of the last 12 months.

Rebecca Pow: Sludge is nutrient rich output derived from the wastewater treatment process and is often used on agricultural land to meet soil and crop need. Sludge use on land is regulated through the Sludge Use in Agriculture Regulations (1989) and is supported by the Sewage Sludge in Agriculture Code of Practice. The water clarification sludge generated by water companies during preparation of water intended for human consumption is regulated as a waste by the Environment Agency. Water companies holding an environmental permit must complete a national operator waste return. The returns provide details of the total amount, in tonnes, of all their hazardous and non-hazardous waste for each site. The information requested is held by the Environment Agency but is not collated centrally and could only be provided at a disproportionate cost.

Water: Pollution

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what regulatory controls water companies must comply with when disposing of sludge from drinking water treatment to help protect the environment from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

Rebecca Pow: There are several sets of regulations which regulate sludge output from water companies. The Sludge Use in Agriculture Regulations (1989) regulate against industrial contaminants in sludge which is spread to land and is supported by the Sewage Sludge in Agriculture Code of Practice, which sets out the parameters you must meet in order to spread sludge to land. These parameters include which treatment type the sludge has undergone, that it has been sufficiently tested, and further requirements to protect the environment and avoid public nuisance. The storage and use of mixed or co-treated materials that contain sludge is regulated under the Environmental Permitting Regime (2016). Waste regulatory controls apply to water clarification waste. This means there will be a requirement to obtain an environmental permit from the Environment Agency for the disposal of sludge from drinking water treatment. The environmental permit provides the regulatory controls to that the waste is disposed of or recovered without endangering human health and without using processes or methods which could harm the environment.

Dogs: Animal Welfare

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle the cropping of dogs’ ears.

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to tackle trends in the level of cropping of dogs’ ears.

Rebecca Pow: The cropping of a dog’s ears is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Now that the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021 has come into force, anyone convicted of such an offence, faces being sent to prison for up to five years, or receiving an unlimited fine, or both. The Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill includes powers to introduce restrictions on pet travel and on the commercial import of pets on welfare grounds, via secondary legislation. In August 2021, the Government launched a consultation on how these powers should be used, including proposals to ban the import of dogs with cropped ears and docked tails. We are carefully reviewing the feedback gathered from our consultation and wider engagement with stakeholders, and a summary will be published in due course.

Schools: Air Pollution

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she is taking steps to provide teachers and parents with air quality information next to schools.

Rebecca Pow: To improve public awareness about air quality around schools, English councils can apply for funding from Defra's Air Quality Grant. In 2023, 13 local authorities received almost £2.5 million for air quality information projects that included a focus on schools. The Government’s Gear Change Plan 2020 includes the School Streets and Walk to School Outreach Programme, which continues to support safe active travel, change behaviour and reduce congestion around schools. Since 2017, Defra has also funded the Clean Air Day - the UK’s biggest air pollution public awareness campaign. Through this campaign a wide range of resources are available for schools to use, designed to help people learn more about the actions they can take to reduce their exposure and contribution to air pollution.

Air Pollution: Pollution Control

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will publish best practice initiatives to reduce air pollution around (a) schools, (b) health care centres and (c) residential areas.

Rebecca Pow: The Air Quality Strategy, published on 28 April 2023, is our strategic delivery framework for local authorities and other partners. A range of best practice initiatives to reduce air pollution are highlighted. To further facilitate the sharing of information and lessons learned between local authorities, Defra has also funded the AQ Hub, where air quality professionals can upload case studies and connect on specific issues of relevance.

Water Treatment: Urban Areas

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make it her policy to introduce an equivalent to the EU-funded MULTISOURCE project for urban water treatment.

Rebecca Pow: In the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan, we set out that we expect water companies to prioritise a natural capital approach, considering carbon reduction and biodiversity net gain, as well as catchment-level and nature-based solutions in their planning. Through our Strategic Policy Statement to Ofwat, we have set, for the first time, a direction to water companies that they must prioritise the environment, including through reducing sewage discharges and their adverse impact. The Environment Act 2021 places duty on water companies to produce comprehensive statutory Drainage and Sewerage Management Plans (also known as Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans) setting out how they will manage and develop their drainage and sewer systems over a minimum 25-year planning horizon, including how storm overflows will be addressed through these plans. The Act also gives a power of direction for the Government to direct water companies in relation to the actions in these Drainage and Sewerage Management Plans.

Local Government: Water

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance her Department has published for local authorities on achieving water neutrality.

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance her Department has published for developers on achieving water neutrality in residential developments.

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make it her policy to require water companies to become water neutral.

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will take steps to help promote water neutrality in the agricultural industry.

Rebecca Pow: Water neutrality is about enabling development which does not increase the amount of water taken/ abstracted from the environment. Water companies account for the effects of growth, drought and climate change uncertainty on future demand within a Water Resources Management Plan and update this every five years. The investment through the Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP) is substantial; between 2020 and 2025 it will account for over £5 billion of asset improvements, investigation, monitoring and catchment interventions. Defra, the Environment Agency and Ofwat work with water companies to identify solutions that will improve water courses and prevent further deterioration. Water companies need to meet environmental legislative requirements set out in the Environment Act 2021. Furthermore, in our Plan for Water we set out how we are working with the Future Homes Hub and Cranfield University to “develop clear guidance on ‘water positive’ or ‘net zero water’ developments and roles for developers and water companies, including water company incentives”. This guidance could be used by Local Authorities and any other organisation that aspires to become water positive. In our Plan for Water we also set out that we will “support development of Agricultural Water Resources Management Plans through the Water for Food Group initiated by the National Farmers’ Union”. We are working with the agriculture sector and supporting farmers to store more water on their land – launching the second round of the £10 million Water Management Grant to fund more on-farm reservoirs and better irrigation equipment - and reducing planning barriers to small reservoirs.

Biodiversity: Finance

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what fiscal steps his Department is taking to meet the targets set out in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Trudy Harrison: The package agreed at COP15, including the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, represents a historic step forward towards addressing the biodiversity crisis. The key is now to fully implement this ambitious framework globally. The framework was agreed alongside a package of international nature finance to support its implementation and put us on the path to nature recovery. The UK has committed to spending at least £3 billion of International Climate Finance to protect and restore nature and biodiversity by 2025/26 and is supporting the development of the new Global Biodiversity Framework Fund agreed at COP15 to launch in 2023. Domestically we are also committed to fiscal support on target delivery. This includes over £750 million for woodland and peatland restoration through the Nature for Climate Fund, current and future agri-environmental schemes, and other support to help restore and create a range of habitat types and reduce key drivers of biodiversity loss. A new multi-million Species Survival Fund was announced within our Environmental Improvement Plan which will support the creation and restoration of wildlife-rich habitats including on protected sites, and will be launched soon. We have also set an ambitious target to raise at least £500 million in private finance for nature’s recovery every year by 2027, rising to more than £1 billion a year by 2030.

Grass: Plastics

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a (a) ban and (b) tax on artificial grass for commercial and domestic use.

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make it her policy to (a) ban the sale of or (b) tax artificial grass which is installed in commercial and domestic properties.

Trudy Harrison: While the use of artificial grass is not a criminal activity and we have no plans to ban, limit or tax its use, the Government does recognise that, in itself, artificial grass has no value for wildlife. Its installation can have negative impacts on soil health, biodiversity and drainage for flood prevention or alleviation if installed in place of natural earth or more positive measures, such as planting flowers or trees or providing natural water features. The Government has not assessed the potential costs and opportunities of restricting the use of artificial grass products. Improving biodiversity is a key objective for the Government. We prefer to help people and companies make the right choice, rather than banning or taxing items outright. For example, the Environment Act 2021 introduced a number of policies that will support the restoration of habitat. Biodiversity Net Gain, Local Nature Recovery Strategies and a strengthened biodiversity duty on public authorities will work together to drive action, including to create or restore habitats that enable wildlife to recover and thrive, while conservation covenants will help secure habitat for the long term.

Roads: Tree Felling

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to bring forward regulations to implement section 115 of the Environment Act 2021 to require local highway authorities to consult members of the public before felling street trees.

Trudy Harrison: We are currently developing appropriate guidance for the new Duty to Consult and will be seeking to commence the measure later this year.

Hunting

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate her Department has made of the number of illegal fox hunts that have taken place in each of the last five years.

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to amend the Hunting Act 2004 to ban trail hunting.

Trudy Harrison: We recognise it is possible that dogs may on occasion pick up and follow the scent of live foxes during a trail hunt. Failure to prevent dogs from chasing or killing a fox may be taken as intent to break the law. Enforcement of the Hunting Act is an operational matter for the police. The Government has made a manifesto commitment not to change the Hunting Act.

Diets and Nutrition

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to promote healthy food and diets.

Mark Spencer: A healthy diet is a key component of good health and the Government advises people to follow the Eatwell Guide. Encouraging more people to follow the Eatwell Guide will have a substantial benefit on health as well as the environment. The Department for Health and Social Care leads on healthy diets and health disparities. Defra works closely with Departments across Whitehall to join up the impacts of Government policy on the food system. The Government Food Strategy set out a plan to transform our food system to ensure it is fit for the future. It set out long-term measures to support a food system that offers access to healthy and sustainable food for all, complementing the measures we had already taken to support those struggling to afford food and help them eat healthily – including through the Healthy Start Scheme, breakfast clubs, and the Holiday Activities and Food Programme.

Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023

Ben Everitt: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023, what plans she has to bring forward secondary legislation to help ensure the potential benefits to the UK’s plant breeding and seed supply sector.

Mark Spencer: We have already taken action to make field trials of precision bred plants easier in England. Several precision bred trials have already taken place and we have received notifications for more trials commencing this year. Following the introduction of the Act, our next step is to develop the secondary legislation that will establish a new proportionate regulatory regime for the marketing of precision bred plants and animals, food and feed. This secondary legislation is expected in the next one to two years. Through this legislation we will support our leading scientists and breeders to capture the potential benefits of this technology for a more sustainable and resilient food system.

Livestock: Antibiotics

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she is taking steps to help reduce the presence of antimicrobial-resistant superbugs originating from industrial farms in water courses.

Rebecca Pow: Antimicrobial usage (AMU) is a key driver influencing the occurrence and emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The degree of intensification of farm production systems can have a bearing on AMU, but that is not necessarily the case. Intensive production systems can involve high health status livestock with high biosecurity to prevent entry of disease and consequently can have low AMU. The extent of risk that Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) presents in the water environment is still being determined. A cross-departmental project called Pathogen Surveillance in Agriculture, Food and the Environment (PATH-SAFE) was established in 2021 to strengthen our understanding of AMR in the environment, including the relative importance of different sources and potential transmission routes. Final results of this project are expected to be published later this year. To date in the UK, collaborative working between government, the veterinary profession and the agriculture sectors has already resulted in our national sales of veterinary antibiotics reducing by 55% since 2014, and in 2021 we recorded the lowest antibiotic use yet. Over this same period the UK have seen overall trend of decreasing antimicrobial resistance in bacteria from animals. The significant achievements of the UK farming industry to reduce their antibiotic use supports the government’s ‘One-Health’ approach to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as set out in the UK National Action Plan on antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Maize: Imports

James Wild: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of restrictions on the import of forage maize seed treated with (a) Kori bird deterrent, (b) Redigo M fungicide and (c) Force insecticide on levels of maize production in the UK.

Mark Spencer: From 1 January 2024, treated seeds can only be used if they are treated with Plant Protection Products authorised in GB. After we left the EU, transitional arrangements were put in place so that seeds treated with products authorised for use in the EU but not GB could continue to be imported, marketed and used. These arrangements come to an end on 31 December 2023. Industry has had the opportunity over the last three years to apply for the relevant GB authorisations, and the Health and Safety Executive has highlighted the actions that they need to take.

Fisheries: Recruitment

Mr Alistair Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the number of fishermen.

Mark Spencer: Through our UK Seafood Fund, we are investing up to £10 million to support projects that will develop new courses and improve the quality of current courses to attract new entrants and upskill existing workers. In our first funding round, we awarded just over £1 million with nearly half of the funding allocated to Scotland. In Shetland, we awarded just over £186,000 to the University of Highlands and Islands that will partner with industry and schools to pilot courses aimed at introducing 13 to 16 year-olds to the seafood sector and seafood careers and help 16 to 18 year-olds transition into the seafood industry. The courses will also made available to new adult entrants. A second funding round, which will provide further funding to improve the quality and accessibility of training facilities is open until 19 May and I would encourage applications. More details can be found here: UK Seafood Fund: Skills and Training Scheme - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Construction: Working Hours

Jess Phillips: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, deon what date statutory provisions governing the permitted hours for construction work came into effect; and for what reasons the setting of permitted hours is delegated to individual local authorities.

Jess Phillips: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information her Department holds on research into the health impacts of noise arising from building sites; what statutory provisions are in place to set a maximum noise level; and whether existing provisions take into account the proximity of existing homes.

Rebecca Pow: The Control of Pollution Act 1974 enables local authorities to serve a notice imposing requirements on construction or demolition works, including the hours during which the works may be carried out. Generally, local authorities require construction work to be carried out between the hours of 8am and 6pm on Monday-Friday, and 8am-1pm on Saturdays, with no working on Sundays and Bank Holidays. We do not consider it appropriate to specify permitted hours for construction works in national law. Local authorities are the main enforcers of the Control of Pollution Act 1974 and decisions around managing noise are best taken by them using their knowledge of the specific context. The Planning Practice Guidance (PPG) outlines that noise needs to be considered when development may create additional noise, or would be sensitive to the prevailing acoustic environment. The PPG details how noise, including during construction, should be considered during both plan making and decision making. The National Planning Policy Framework also states that planning policies and decisions should mitigate and reduce to a minimum potential adverse impacts resulting from noise from new development – and avoid noise giving rise to significant adverse impacts on health and the quality of life. Defra has convened the Interdepartmental Group for Costs and Benefits (Noise subject group) to review the available evidence relating to the health effects from environmental noise exposure. This includes construction noise, and the group has published two reviews on this subject which are available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32357581/ and  https://icl-ref-dryad.maxarchiveservices.co.uk/index.php/j-arup-2020-review-of-evidence-relating-to-environmental-noise-exposure-and-specific-health-outcomes-in-the-context-of-the-interdepartmental-group-on-costs-and-benefits-pdf It is not possible to have a single objective noise-based measure which would apply to all situations without giving rise to unintended consequences. This is because effect levels are likely to be different for different noise sources, different people and at different times. We therefore consider it best to allow local authorities some flexibility to make decisions using their specific knowledge of the local context.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations

Mr Alistair Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she last met representatives of the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations.

Mark Spencer: The Secretary of State has not met representatives of the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations (NFFO). I last met representatives of the NFFO in Newlyn on 5 April.

Horticulture: Peat

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on what evidential basis she has reduced the timeframe for tree and plant growers to test peat-free growing media before a ban becomes law.

Trudy Harrison: We formally consulted in December 2021 on ending the retail sale of peat in horticulture in England, proposing an end date of 2028 for professional use. This consultation built on a voluntary target to end professional peat use by 2030 that was set in 2011. From the consultation process it is evident that many businesses have switched to peat free or have made commitments to be peat free well in advance of 2030. Having considered written responses and wider stakeholder engagement we have confirmed a proposed end date of 2030 alongside limited restrictions after the end of 2026.The restrictions will be designed to continue to allow continued peat use in those parts of the sector where the switch to peat free is particularly difficult and we will work to ensure that they strike the right balance between protecting our natural environment whilst ensuring that we continue to be able to grow the food we eat and the plants we enjoy.

Water Supply: South East

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with (a) the Welsh Government, (b) Powys County Council, (c) Thames Water, (d) Seven Trent Water and (e) United Utilities on proposals to redirect water supplies from Llyn Fyrnwy to the South East of England.

Rebecca Pow: As agreed in the Intergovernmental Protocol on Water Resources, Water Supply and Water Quality, Defra and the Welsh Government work together on water resources management. Water companies in England and Wales have a statutory duty to provide a secure supply of water for customers, efficiently and economically. Statutory water resources management plans show how companies will continue to meet this duty and manage water supply and demand sustainably for at least the next 25 years. In their plans, water companies must consider all options, including demand management and water resources infrastructure. Collaborative regional water resources groups and water companies have been consulting on their draft water resources management plans. This includes United Utilities, Severn Trent Water and Thames Water. Within the draft plans produced by Thames Water, Severn Trent Water and United Utilities, are descriptions of a transfer of water from the reservoir Vyrnwy (Llyn Efyrnwy) through the River Severn and then into the upper part of the River Thames. This is known as the Severn to Thames transfer. Following public consultation, the water companies are now reviewing how they will change their plans. The companies will produce a Statement of Response that will detail whether this transfer will continue. The scheme is also being reviewed through RAPID (Regulators Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development). Ofwat, the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales issued joint water resources planning guidance to water companies, which takes account of policy in England and Wales. They are also statutory consultees on the plans, as relevant. The plans will be referred to the Secretary of State and Welsh Ministers for approval later in the year.

Horticulture: Peat

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is taking steps to help support the professional horticulture sector to develop responsibly-sourced alternatives to peat that can be produced at volume and which maintain the quality of the produce.

Trudy Harrison: We have supported, and continue to support, a number of research projects looking at alternatives to peat in growing media. Following our recent announcement on the detail of our proposed time-limited exemptions for professional use, we will be taking further soundings from the horticulture sector regarding technical barriers to transitioning away from the use of peat and the type of research and development projects which could benefit from Government support.

Food: Packaging

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an estimate of the quantity of single use plastics used in food packaging in each of the last five years.

Rebecca Pow: Defra does not hold the data to calculate the quantity of single use plastics used in food packaging in each of the last five years in England. The Waste and Resources Action Programme has however reported in the Plastics Market Situation Report 2021, that 948,000 tonnes of plastic packaging for grocery products was placed on the UK market in 2017 and 987,000 tonnes in 2019.

Department for Work and Pensions

Social Security Benefits

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the annual amount of unclaimed welfare benefits.

Guy Opperman: The Department regularly promotes and raises awareness of the benefits available to the public including through stakeholder support and the Help for Households campaign, with our network of over 600 Jobcentres standing ready to help those who need it.Since the beginning of the Pension Credit awareness campaign in April 2022, weekly applications for Pension Credit increased by an average of 73% compared to the year average before the campaign began (April 2021 to March 2022). We have used various channels to promote Pension Credit including advertising on television and radio and social media promotion. The Department has recently written to over 11 million pensioners to notify them of the up-rating their State Pension. A leaflet accompanying the notification included our updated Pension Credit campaign messaging to encourage eligible pensioners to make a claim. Our work on promoting Pension Credit will continue throughout this year. For Universal Credit, the independent benefit calculators on gov.uk and the free Help to Claim support from Citizens Advice are available to help people check their eligibility and claim Universal Credit. An extra £22 million investment was announced in March to extend free and impartial support through Help to Claim to help people to make a Universal Credit claim. This additional investment will ensure that support is available to help people make a new Universal Credit claim and manage their claim until they receive their first payment.

Social Security Benefits: Disqualification

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has commissioned research on the reasons for jobcentres in northern England having on average higher sanction rates than those elsewhere in England.

Guy Opperman: There are currently no plans to undertake further research.

Universal Credit

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the impact of changes to Universal Credit (a) assessment periods and (b) payment schedules arising from early salary payments at weekends and bank holidays on people affected by those payments.

Guy Opperman: There are no planned changes to Universal Credit assessment periods or payment schedules. Universal Credit has been designed with monthly assessment periods to reflect the world of work, where the majority of all employees receive wages monthly. Guidance is available to claimants, staff and representatives to raise awareness of different earnings patterns and their impact on Universal Credit. Where a claimant wishes to dispute the earnings information, we have received from their employer, they can submit evidence to us, and we will look into the case to see if a change needs to be made.

Universal Credit: Expenditure

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Benefit expenditure and caseload tables 2022, published on 24 May 2022, and the Benefit expenditure and caseload tables 2023, published on 25 April 2023, for what reason the outturn spending on Universal Credit in 2021-22 was higher that the forecast.

Guy Opperman: In the financial year 2021-22, there was a higher than forecasted caseload for those with health conditions and therefore receiving a health element in their Universal Credit award. Universal Credit households with health conditions tend to have the highest average awards, and an increase in this caseload tends to increase the overall UC average award. Therefore, even though the overall Universal Credit caseload has decreased slightly between the two publications, overall expenditure has increased between them.

Jobcentres: Disability

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will provide dedicated funding for assistive technology to support disabled people to access services in jobcentres.

Guy Opperman: I would refer to the answer already given at PQ 181920 in relation to the support provided to customers in our Jobcentres. As part of its commitment to make services accessible to all customers, the Department provides computers for customer use in Jobcentres which have assistive technology built into them and are managed separately from the wider DWP IT estate. The Department also provides a range of peripheral items in each Jobcentre such as alternative keyboards. This provision has funding identified and ring-fenced within the current spending review period.  The DWP have also improved access to our Wi-Fi services in all Jobcentres, allowing customers to use their own personal devices if they prefer.

Jobcentres: Visual Impairment

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to introduce (a) screen readers, (b) specialist screen magnification software and (c) refreshable braille displays in jobcentres.

Guy Opperman: The Department provides computers for customer use in Jobcentres which have assistive technology such as screen readers and screen magnification built into them. Although Jobcentres do not offer the use of refreshable braille displays, customers are able to access a wide range of services which can support their needs such as braille and large print documents being made available upon request.

Children: Maintenance

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications to cancel passports have been made as a result of non-payment of child maintenance in the last 12 months.

Mims Davies: The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has a wide range of enforcement powers available to use for those parents who will not engage in a negotiated debt repayment plan for unpaid maintenance. Any enforcement power that would be recommended to the Courts is usually based on the level of debt and consideration of the ability to repay within the time periods set out in our legislation, as well as the most appropriate sanction for the circumstances of the parent. These powers are intended to be a strong deterrent to encourage parents to meet their obligations. During the last 12 months CMS has not applied for a passport confiscation on non-paying cases. Details of enforcement powers used can be found within the Child Maintenance published statistics at tables 7.1 and 7.2 here.

Maternity Allowance and Maternity Pay

Mark Tami: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average payment was to people that claimed (a) Maternity Allowance and (b) Statutory Maternity Pay in the last 12 months for which data is available.

Mims Davies: Maternity Allowance data is published on a quarterly basis and includes data on average payment. The latest release is for June to August 2022. Maternity Allowance statistics for May 2022 was not published as planned due to a data production error. Thereby, data from the last 4 available quarters is reported in Table 1. This is taken from Table 4 of the Maternity Allowance quarterly statistics published here. Table 1: Average weekly Maternity Allowance payments over 4 quarters  Average weekly Maternity Allowance paymentsJune 2021 to August 2021£143.07September 2021 to November 2021£143.69December 2021 to February 2022£141.85June 2022 to August 2022£147.57 Statutory Maternity Pay is delivered through HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), rather than the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). There is no published data on the average payment for Statutory Maternity Pay.

Maternity Allowance

Mark Tami: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants of Maternity Allowance who earn below the lower earnings limit were (a) self-employed and (b) recently left employment in the last 12 months for which data is available.

Mims Davies: The Lower Earnings Limit per week in the period of 6 July 2022 to 5 April 2023 was £123. Guidance on National Insurance contributions are published here. You can get Maternity Allowance for 39 weeks if in the 66 weeks before your baby is due, you have been employed or registered as self-employed for at least 26 weeks. Maternity Allowance eligibility is published here. Maternity Allowance data is published on a quarterly basis and includes data on employment status. The latest release is for June to August 2022. Maternity Allowance statistics for May 2022 was not published as planned due to a data production error. Thereby, data from the last 4 available quarters is reported in Table 1. This is taken from Table 7a of the Maternity Allowance quarterly statistics published here. Data specific to claimants earning below the Lower Earnings Limit is not available. The data in Table 1 refers to claimants on both the Maternity Allowance Standard Rate or Variable Rate. Table 1: Number of self-employed, unemployed, and other Maternity Allowance claimants over 4 quarters   Self-employed claimantsUnemployed and other claimantsJune 2021 to August 20216,900NegligibleSeptember 2021 to November 20215,880NegligibleDecember 2021 to February 20224,860NegligibleJune 2022 to August 20225,740Negligible

Local Housing Allowance: Greater London

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of supply of housing to rent at local housing allowance rates in (a) Haringey and (b) neighbouring boroughs.

Mims Davies: No recent assessment has been made of adequacy of supply of housing to rent at local housing allowance rates. The Government recognises that demand is currently outstripping the supply of private rented properties available to let. Housebuilding is a priority for this Government. The Government has committed to continue working towards its ambition of delivering 300,000 homes per year to help create a more sustainable and affordable housing market. The Government is driving up the supply of new homes by diversifying the market, investing in affordable housing, and increasing land supply for new homes by investing in infrastructure.

Maternity Allowance and Maternity Pay

Mark Tami: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time was that people claimed (a) Maternity Allowance and (b) Statutory Maternity Pay in the last 12 months for which data is available.

Mims Davies: Maternity Allowance data is published on a quarterly basis and includes data on average duration. The latest release is for June to August 2022. Maternity Allowance statistics for May 2022 was not published as planned due to a data production error. Thereby, data from the last 4 available quarters is reported in Table 1. This is taken from note 6 of the Maternity Allowance quarterly statistics published here.

Remote Working

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the Government's most recent guidance is on working from home.

Mims Davies: Due to the rise in the number of workers working from home, either on a permanent or hybrid basis, the Health and Safety Executive expanded its Home Worker guidance to cover employer’s responsibilities This updated guidance was published in November 2021 Home working - HSE

Local Housing Allowance: Hornsey and Wood Green

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of whether the Local Housing Allowance rates meet the thirtieth percentile of local rents in the broad rental market area covering Hornsey and Wood Green constituency.

Mims Davies: Hornsey and Wood Green constituency spans two Broad Rental Market Areas: Inner North London; and, Outer North London. The Local Housing Allowance rates for these areas as well as the latest 30th percentile data for England is published by the Valuation Office Agency here.

Local Housing Allowance and Private Rented Housing: Cost of Living

Stephen Farry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the increased rate of inflation and cost of living on (a) the adequacy of the Local Housing Allowance and (b) private renters.

Mims Davies: The Government recognises the financial pressures tenants are facing and is providing total support of over £94bn over 2022-23 and 2023-24 to help households and individuals with the rising cost of living. Individuals who need help to make their rent payments may be eligible for a range of financial support through the welfare system. LHA determines the maximum amount of housing support for Housing Benefit and Universal Credit claimants renting in the private rented sector. LHA is not intended to meet all rents in all areas. In April 2020 LHA rates were raised to the 30th percentile of local market rents, a significant investment of almost £1 billion. We have maintained the increase since then so that everyone who benefited continues to do so. The Local Housing Allowance (LHA) policy is kept under regular review. We monitor average rents and housing support levels provided to claimants to assess the impact of the policy. Any assessment made is always within the context of the economic landscape at the time. For those who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs and need further support, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are available from local authorities. Since 2011 the Government has provided nearly £1.6 billion in DHP funding to local authorities

Incontinence: Health and Safety

Carla Lockhart: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that the needs of men experiencing incontinence are recognised in Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations.

Mims Davies: The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) 1992 Regulations (‘the Workplace Regulations’) and Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) set broad standards for what employers should provide to ensure the workplace is safe, healthy and provides appropriate welfare facilities to meet the needs of each member of the workforce. Regulation 20 of the Workplace Regulations state that toilets should be kept in a clean and orderly condition. A business should consider the means to ensure they can fulfil this duty for every member of the workforce. The guidance already places a requirement for any worker with a disability to have access to facilities which are adjusted for their use if necessary.

Jobcentres: Disability

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what step his Department is taking to make job centres accessible.

Guy Opperman: Each jobcentre is constructed to the legislation relevant at the time of the project. Legislation continues to evolve leading to newer sites typically including more inclusive design than older ones. Access audits are now being carried out for all new building acquisitions and major refurbishment projects. Recommendations from these audits then become part of the scope for the works being carried out. Where individual access issues have been identified, local operational adjustments are made to support the claimant. The Department is committed to improving access and inclusion for colleagues and members of the public through the on-going development of its jobcentre design guides. The design guides provide the standards for future properties and major refurbishments of existing sites. Assistive technology is provided in new jobcentres and in locations where major refurbishment work is being carried out. The assistive technology being provided is briefly summarised below: Portable hearing loopsWheelchair liftsAutomated entrance doorsElectric height adjustable desks We also offer a range of services and assistive technology to help claimants who have accessibility needs including Video Relay Service, Next Generation Text Relay, braille and large print, free phoneline, audio CD and home visits.

Food Banks

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data his Department holds on the number of people using food banks in each month since January 2022.

Mims Davies: Foodbanks are independent, charitable organisations and HM Government does not have any role in their operation. As such, monthly breakdowns are not available. National statistics on food bank use for 2021/22 are available here. We aim to publish statistics for 2022/23 in March 2024.

Universal Credit

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department plans to take to help support people to find suitable work, in the context of changes to thresholds for Universal Credit.

Guy Opperman: The government is committed to supporting people both into work and to progress in work. The changes to the Administrative Earnings Threshold (AET) ensure that more Universal Credit claimants on low incomes are provided with regular Work Coach support to help them grow their earnings. This could be by accessing provision to improve their skills, identifying opportunities to work more hours or progress with their current employer, or finding a role that better suits their careers aspirations with another employer or sector. We have also introduced a new In Work Progression Offer, which provides Work Coach engagement to UC claimants earning above the AET. This is supported by 37 new District Progression Leads who are working with key partners, including local government, employers, and skills providers to identify and develop local progression opportunities, and to overcome barriers that limit progression, such as childcare and transport.

Social Security Benefits

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of  introducing specific financial support for parent who was the full time carer of a child with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition for whom they were in receipt of benefits and on Universal Credit, following that child’s death.

Guy Opperman: There are currently no plans to introduce a Bereavement Support Payment for parents who were full-time carers of a child with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition. Payment of Universal Credit will continue, unreduced, as a bereavement run-on for the current assessment period and the two assessment periods following the bereavement.

Universal Credit: Deductions

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households claiming Universal Credit had a deduction in each of the last 12 months for which data is available.

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children were living in households claiming Universal Credit that had a deduction in each of the last 12 months for which data are available.

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what was the (a) average amount per household and (b) total aggregated amount taken from Universal Credit payments amongst households subject to a deduction in each of the last 12 months for which data is available.

Guy Opperman: The primary aim of the Universal Credit deductions policy is to protect vulnerable claimants by providing a last resort repayment method for arrears of essential services. In recent years, the standard UC deduction cap has been reduced twice – from 40% to 30% of the Standard Allowance in October 2019, and down to 25% in April 2021. The requested information is provided in the separate spreadsheet.Attachment  (xlsx, 12.6KB)

Universal Credit: Disqualification

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many decisions were made to apply a sanction to a (a) single and (b) joint Universal Credit claim where at least one claimant received the Personal Independence Payment in the period since June 2020.

Guy Opperman: The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost. People are only sanctioned if they fail to meet their agreed requirements or fail to take up or stay in employment without good reason. Conditionality requirements are tailored to the claimant’s circumstances, including any physical or mental health conditions, so they are reasonable and achievable. Emphasis is placed on protecting vulnerable claimants. Prior to any referral for a sanction, a pre-referral quality check at local Jobcentre level takes place to ensure it is appropriate in the circumstances.

Universal Credit: Disqualification

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many decisions were made to apply a sanction to a single Universal Credit claim where that claimant received the Personal Independence Payment in the period since June 2020.

Guy Opperman: The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost. People are only sanctioned if they fail to meet their agreed requirements or fail to take up or stay in employment without good reason. Conditionality requirements are tailored to the claimant’s circumstances, including any physical or mental health conditions, so they are reasonable and achievable. Emphasis is placed on protecting vulnerable claimants. Prior to any referral for a sanction, a pre-referral quality check at local Jobcentre level takes place to ensure it is appropriate in the circumstances.

Universal Credit: Children

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 24 April 2023 to Question 181665 on Universal Credit: Children, what process his Department uses to assess the value for money of policies on which it does not collect data.

Guy Opperman: The DWP Evaluation Strategy sets out our approach for ensuring that our evaluation work delivers high quality evidence on the right questions at the right time. It covers all types of evaluation – process, impact and value for money.

Universal Credit: Disqualification

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Institute for Public Policy Research's paper entitled The Sanctions Surge published March 2023, what estimate he has made of the proportion of adverse decisions against Universal Credit claimants that were made due to a failure to attend or participate in a mandatory interview between August 2021 and October 2022.

Guy Opperman: The Claimant Commitment is agreed between the claimant and the Work Coach, and it is based on the claimant’s particular circumstances. People are only sanctioned when they fail, without good reason, to meet the requirements set out in their Claimant Commitment. Failure to attend or participate in a mandatory interview, as agreed in the Claimant Commitment, accounted for 98.5% of adverse decisions made between August 2021 and October 2022.

Employment: Disability

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to improve training for (a) work coaches and (b) disability employment advisers to help ensure that jobseekers with complex disabilities receive support to (i) find and (ii) stay in employment; and if he will make a statement.

Tom Pursglove: Learning products within the Work Coach and Disability Employment Adviser Learning Journey include learning around supporting and coaching claimants with complex needs to move closer to, in to, and sustain, employment.To ensure the continuous improvement of our learning, the Work Coach and Disability Employment Adviser learning products are regularly reviewed with policy colleagues, work psychologists and representatives from service delivery, and utilising findings from our post learning evaluation. Any opportunities to improve are impacted across all the learning products and changes made as quickly as possible.

Personal Independence Payment: Appeals

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 26 April 2023 to Question 181603 on Personal Independence Payment: Appeals, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the incidence of individuals being refused a Personal Independence Payment award at initial claim and mandatory reconsideration before receiving an award due to lapsed appeal.

Tom Pursglove: The department’s aim is to make the right decision as early as possible in the process. To support this, we have made improvements to the decision-making process at both the first decision and the Mandatory Reconsideration stage, giving Decision Makers additional time to proactively contact claimants if they think additional evidence may support the claim.​ We are continuing to learn from decisions overturned at appeal. For example, we gather insight from Presenting Officers who regularly provide feedback from hearings they attend, with a view to learning from overturned decisions.​

Jobcentres

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many jobcentres there are in the UK; and how many and what proportion of these are fully accessible for disabled people.

Tom Pursglove: The DWP has a network of 637 permanent Jobcentres, and 164 temporary Jobcentres in Great Britain (Scotland, England and Wales). Each permanent Jobcentre was designed following relevant legislation at the time of the fit out work and remain compliant. The DWP opened temporary Jobcentres in response to the COVID 19 pandemic; the vast majority of these centres were also accessible to the public. Where an accessible building could not be found, a temporary Jobcentre would be partnered with a permanent or ‘parent’ site. Before attending a first appointment, customers are asked if they have any access requirements and seen at a permanent site if needed. The DWP prioritises customer accessibility in our buildings. Entrances are step free, doors are automated where possible, or team members will open doors for customers, and customers can be seen at ground floor or building entry level. The DWP works to Approved Document M (or equivalent in the devolved nations) and BS8300; a building can meet the guidance in these documents, however a building may not be deemed to be ‘fully accessible’ in meeting the needs of each unique disability. Where individual accessibility challenges arise, we will work on a case-by-case basis to support our customers.

Social Security Benefits: Fraud

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the average amount of time it took his Department to complete a benefit fraud investigation in the last 12 months.

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many fraud investigations conducted by his Department are ongoing.

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, many fraud investigations conducted by his Department which resulted in the finding of fraud have been overturned at appeal in the last 12 months.

Tom Pursglove: In the 2022/23 reporting year it took on average 235 working days for the DWP to complete a benefit fraud investigation. These investigations vary significantly in their nature and complexity and no set time can be attributed to an individual investigation. Our investigators, working with the Crown Prosecution Service where appropriate, seek to expedite all investigations as quickly as possible to ensure the criminal burden of proof is met. As of the end of March 2023, the DWP had 18,691 open investigations into alleged benefit fraud recorded on its reporting systems. Not all of these will be fraud and it is right we follow the due process. Outside of that figure there will be a number of ongoing investigations into serious and organised crime where there may be more than one alleged offender or complicit individuals. Information on successful appeals relating specifically to decisions made as a result of a fraud investigation are not readily available and to provide them would incur disproportionate cost.

Social Security Benefits: Underpayments

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the level of benefits underpayments due to official error.

Tom Pursglove: DWP takes benefit correctness extremely seriously and where departmental errors are identified we act swiftly to correct and pay any arrears due. The Government is fully committed to ensuring that historical errors made by successive governments are addressed as quickly as possible and where these are identified, ensure that appropriate action is taken to rectify the claim.The department’s Quality Framework means we constantly check the accuracy of agents’ work, which helps identify any additional training requirements. It also means we can update training material and instructions as required.Alongside the department’s quality checking regime, our Targeted Case Review initiative will review 2 million UC cases over the next 5 years, checking entitlement and helping ensure people are receiving the right amount of benefit.

Pension Credit: Take-up

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 23 February 2023 to Question 148594 on Pension Credit, what progress his Department has made on work to assess whether the Family Resources Survey 2021-22 can produce new take-up estimates for Pension Credit.

Laura Trott: In March 2023, we published the Family Resources Survey for 2021/22. Following this, work has begun to assess whether the data can produce new take-up estimates for 2021/22. In line with the UK Statistics Authority Code of Practice for Statistics, I will provide an update as soon as I know the outcome of the assessment of the data.

Small Businesses: Chronic Illnesses

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department holds data on the number of business owners suffering with chronic illnesses.

Tom Pursglove: In 2021/22, there were a total of 660,000 self-employed working age (16-64) individuals in the UK who reported a long-term health condition that affected their day-to-day activities, therefore classifying them as disabled.* *Source: The employment of disabled people 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk), table EMP003)

Small Businesses: Chronic Illnesses

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to support business owners with chronic illnesses.

Tom Pursglove: A range of Government initiatives are supporting disabled people and people with long term health conditions (including business owners) to start, stay, and succeed in work. These include: increasing Work Coach support in Jobcentres for people with health conditions receiving Universal Credit or Employment and Support Allowance;Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres offering advice and expertise on how to help disabled people and people with health conditions into work;the Work and Health Programme and Intensive Personalised Employment Support, providing tailored and personalised support for participants;Access to Work grants towards extra costs of working beyond standard reasonable adjustments;Disability Confident encouraging employers to think differently about disability and health, and to take positive action to address the issues disabled employees face in the workplace;the Information and Advice Service providing better integrated and tailored guidance on supporting health and disability in the workplace; andsupport in partnership between DWP and the health system, including Employment Advice in NHS Talking Therapies, which combines psychological treatment and employment support for people with mental health conditions. To tackle rising economic inactivity due to long-term sickness, we announced a wide-reaching package at the Spring Budget to support disabled people and people with health conditions to work. New investment broadens access to additional Work Coach support for disabled people and people with health conditions, introduces a new supported employment programme and focuses on providing faster access to joined-up work and health support, including for mental health and musculoskeletal conditions, the two leading causes of economic inactivity due to long term sickness

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Orchestras

Mr Ranil Jayawardena: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she plans to take to support orchestras.

Sir John Whittingdale: HM Government is proud to champion our world-class orchestras and musicians, and help them to thrive. Through Arts Council England’s 2023–26 Investment Programme, more money is going to more orchestral organisations in more parts of the country than ever before.The Arts Council’s new national portfolio is supporting 139 organisations classed as ‘music’ by investing c.£65 million of public funding. The Arts Council’s investment in classical music remains high, in particular in orchestral music organisations, with 23 such organisations being funded – an increase from 19 in the last round; and at around £21 million per annum, which is around £2 million more than previously. Moreover, these numbers are likely to underestimate the level of music activity being funded as some organisations will fall into combined arts or non-discipline-specific categories. The Arts Council’s investment in orchestras, opera, and other classical organisations through the new portfolio constitutes nearly 80% of all its investment in music.Organisations such as the Multi-Story Orchestra, Orchestras for All, ParaOrchestra, The People’s Orchestra, and Pegasus Opera are joining the National Portfolio for the first time – bringing down barriers to classical music, celebrating the power it can have in people’s lives, and inspiring the next generation of performers – while long-established organisations such as the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia, and the Hallé Orchestra continue to receive funding.Furthermore, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced at Spring Budget 2023 that the Government will extend the current headline rates of relief for the Theatre and Orchestra Tax Relief for two years. The rates for Orchestra Tax Relief will remain at 50% for expenditure taking place from 1 April 2023, reducing to 35% from 1 April 2025 and returning to 25% from 1 April 2026.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport: Training

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will publish the guidance her Department uses for diversity network events which require checks on external speakers prior to inviting them to participate in Civil Service events.

Sir John Whittingdale: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport follows guidance provided by the Civil Service HR Inclusive Practice team at the Cabinet Office. It is imperative that we retain impartiality across the Civil Service, avoiding any politicised events or groups impacting on the working life of civil servants.

Television Licences: Older People

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many over 75's have been subject to court action for the non-payment of TV Licence.

Sir John Whittingdale: Collecting and enforcing the Licence Fee is the responsibility of the BBC. The BBC has recently confirmed that no enforcement action has been taken against over-75s for TV licence evasion at this stage.The Government has been clear that the BBC must ensure that it supports those affected by its decision on the over-75s concession, and we expect them to do so with the utmost sensitivity.

Music Venues: Enfield North

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what funding her Department is providing to grassroots music venues in Enfield North constituency.

Sir John Whittingdale: The Government is committed to supporting our grassroots music venues, which are the lifeblood, and research and development centres, of our world-leading music sector.The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is in regular discussions with all parts of the music industry, including live venues at every level. We work with industry and across Government to improve the sector's economic resilience to future economic shocks, as we did through the pandemic, and the recent Energy Bills Support Scheme.In Enfield North specifically, across all artforms and disciplines Arts Council England have invested £3.426 million in Enfield North since 2018/19 in 61 projects. This includes 9 music specific applications from available funds, such as:Skanda Sabbagh who received £10,000 through Developing Your Creative Practice fund to develop their North African percussion practice, and electronic music artist and rapper Paul Pitter who received a National Lottery Project Grant award (£23,600) to develop a new Extended Play (EP);£1.25 million was invested in the Enfield North Music Education Hub via the Music Hub Investment Programme; andFour Enfield North based projects received Cultural Recovery Fund funding. Three of these grants were awarded to the local authority (totalling £778,000) with a focus on sustaining their venues, the Dugdale Centre and Millfield Theatre, which programme a range of music, amongst other art forms.

Youth Services

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps her Department has taken to improve the provision of youth services in (a) York and (b) the UK.

Stuart Andrew: As set out in section 507B of the Education Act 1996, Local Authorities have a statutory duty to ‘secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people’. This is funded from the Local Government settlement, the majority of which is un-ringfenced, allowing local authorities to spend on services according to local priorities, including on youth services. The settlement is anticipated to be almost £60 billion this year (FY 23/24) for councils in England - a 9% increase on the previous year.In England the government recognises the vital role that youth services and activities play in improving the life chances and wellbeing of young people.The government has committed to a National Youth Guarantee: that by 2025, every young person will have access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer. This is supported by a three-year investment of over £500 million in youth services, reflecting young people's priorities and addressing the inconsistencies in national youth spending with a firm focus on levelling up.Young people in York will benefit from elements of the National Youth Guarantee, for example, a year-round National Citizen Service programme; increased access to the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award; expanded uniformed youth groups and volunteering opportunities through the #iwill Fund.The devolved administrations of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland are responsible for their own youth services.

Civil Society: Finance

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the £100 million funding for local charities and community organisations announced in the Spring Budget 2023, when her Department plans to publish proposals for the use of that funding; and if she will make a statement.

Stuart Andrew: As announced in the recent Spring Budget, the government will provide over £100 million of support for charities and community organisations in England. This will be targeted towards those organisations most at risk, due to increased demand from vulnerable groups and higher delivery costs, as well as providing investment in energy efficiency.Work is underway to finalise the delivery time frame and eligibility criteria. Further details will be announced as soon as possible - these will be published on gov.uk and a statement made to the House as appropriate.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Council of Europe

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he plans to attend the Council of Europe summit in Iceland in May 2023.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK looks forward to the upcoming Council of Europe Heads of State Summit in May this year. The Summit is an opportunity to re-affirm the importance the UK places in its work with European Partners, fortifying the Council of Europe to play a stronger role in Europe when strengthening and securing democracy. The UK attaches great importance to this Summit and the Prime Minister's Office is closely considering the invitation.

Sudan: Repatriation

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of evacuating (a) non-British nationals with relevant entry clearance from Sudan and (b) non-British nationals with family reunion visas.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: Our priority has always been the safe evacuation of British Nationals and their eligible dependents. As such, we have been taking necessary action to ensure they were evacuated before considering other groups that could be eligible. The evacuation criteria was expanded on 29 April to include eligible non-British nationals in Sudan who are working as clinicians within the NHS, and their dependants who have leave to enter the UK. Latest figures show that we have helped to evacuate 1,207 non-British nationals. Border Force officials working alongside FCDO on the ground were empowered to make decisions on individual family cases as appropriate.

Iceland: Council of Europe

John Howell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the presentation by his Icelandic counterpart as chairman of the Committee of Ministers at the Council of Europe on 25 April 2023.

John Howell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the debate on #RoadToReykjavik, which took place at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 25 April 2023.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: We welcome the recent speech the Icelandic Foreign Minister made at the Parliamentary Assembly to the Council of Europe regarding the Icelandic priorities at the upcoming Council of Europe Head of State Summit later this month and agree that a key priority for the Summit is continued support to Ukarine and opposition to Russia's aggression. The Summit will be an opportunity to re-invigorate Europe's oldest multilateral organisation so that it plays a strong role in strengthening and securing democracy across Europe and ensure support for Ukraine, through continued pressure on Russia.

Council of Europe

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to support the mission of the Council of Europe to promote human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK is committed to continuing to work with the Council of Europe to promote our shared values of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. We take a proactive role within Council of Europe forums to contribute to the development of standards to further protect human rights and the rule of law across Europe, including in emerging areas such as hate crime and AI. As the Prime Minister confirmed in a debate on Northern Ireland Protocol (27 February 2023), "the UK is and will remain a member of the ECHR".

Iraq and Syria: Prisoners

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the number of prisoners in Iraq and Syria who are likely to join Islamic State.

David Rutley: Daesh's ability to direct, enable and inspire attacks continues to represent the most significant global terrorist threat, including to the UK, our people and our interests overseas. The threat emanating from camps and detention centres in north east Syria is particularly acute. We continue to work with our international partners, notably through the Global Coalition Against Daesh, to tackle the insurgencies in Iraq and Syria, prevent Daesh's resurgence and further degrade its network. We continue to monitor developments in the region very closely.

Israel: Administration of Justice

Holly Lynch: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he held discussions with the Israeli Prime Minister on that country's proposed judicial reforms during the visit of the Prime Minister to the UK in March.

David Rutley: As set out in the Foreign Secretary's statement on 27 March, the UK welcomes the decision taken by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pause legislation to reform Israel's judiciary. During his meeting with PM Netanyahu on 24 March in London, the Prime Minister made clear the importance of upholding the shared democratic values that underpin our relationship, including in relation to the proposed judicial reforms in Israel. The Foreign Secretary also raised judicial reform and the importance of seeking consensus on this sensitive issue, with Israel's Foreign Minister Cohen during his visit to London on 21 March. The UK enjoys a deep and historic relationship with Israel, and we continue to urge all parties to ensure that a robust system of checks and balances, and the independence of Israel's judiciary, are preserved.

Transcaucasus: Roads

John Howell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the oral contribution of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in response a question on the Lachin Corridor on 24 April 2023 at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK Government has been clear that continued disruption to the Lachin corridor runs counter to efforts to secure peace and stability in the region. We urge Armenia and Azerbaijan to engage in substantive negotiations to secure a sustainable and peaceful settlement to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. If an independent international mission to the Lachin Corridor was welcomed by all parties, and would contribute to an early solution, then the UK would, in principle, support it.

COE Commissioner for Human Rights

John Howell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the Address on the Annual activity report 2022 by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, which took place at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 24 April 2023.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The Human Rights Commissioner is an independent non-judicial role with the mandate of promoting awareness of and respect for human rights in the 46 Council of Europe member states. The UK Government will carefully consider the Commissioner for Human Rights Annual activity report.

Sudan: Travel Requirements

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had recent discussions with his international counterparts on taking steps to help ensure that there is a safe route out of Sudan for people that have submitted their passports to western embassies in support of visa applications.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The FCDO and Home Office have worked together closely throughout the course of the crisis response. Where Sudanese people cannot access their travel documents due to an ongoing UK visa application, the Home Office will facilitate practical solutions to ensure this does not impede individuals' planned travel.The Foreign Secretary, FCDO Ministers and officials have engaged with a range of international partners on evacuation planning and continue to coordinate on efforts to de-escalate tensions in Sudan.

Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department is taking diplomatic steps in response to allegations of torture against Prince Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa of Bahrain.

David Rutley: We continue to follow matters that relate to human rights within Bahrain closely and are aware of these historic allegations. The allegations were previously brought to the attention of the Metropolitan Police Service, which concluded that there was insufficient evidence to proceed. We take allegations or issues about torture and mistreatment very seriously and urge all allegations to be reported to the appropriate national oversight body whose duty it is to carry out full and independent investigations. We continue to encourage the oversight bodies to carry out swift and thorough investigations into any such claims.

Sudan: Travel Requirements

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help support Sudanese people who have surrendered their passports to the UK Government as part of an application process for a visa and are unable to leave Sudan without those documents.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The FCDO and Home Office have worked together closely throughout the course of the crisis response. Where Sudanese people cannot access their travel documents due to an ongoing UK visa application, the Home Office will facilitate practical solutions to ensure this does not impede individuals' planned travel.

Nigeria: Arms Trade

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact UK arms sales to Nigeria have had on the general security of that country.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: Nigeria is experiencing multiple, complex security challenges and the UK Government is supporting Nigeria to respond through our Security and Defence Partnership, including through technical assistance and practical support. The government takes its strategic export control responsibilities seriously. We examine every application for controlled items on a case-by-case basis against the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria. We draw on a range of sources in making our assessments, including NGOs and international organisations, and reports from our overseas networks. The Government will not grant an export licence if to do so would be inconsistent with the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria, including respect for human rights and international humanitarian law, internal peace and security, and the risk of diversion.

Sudan: Humanitarian Aid

Claire Hanna: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department plans to take to help provide (a) food supplies, (b) water supplies, (c) medical care and (d) other humanitarian support to people in Sudan.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The humanitarian situation in Sudan is worsening. The FCDO's top humanitarian priority is to secure workable humanitarian access, including security assurances for humanitarian agencies. There can be no international aid without safe and reliable access. We are coordinating with the international humanitarian system to support the UN to be able to scale-up delivery within Sudan so they can move quickly to respond as soon as access improves. On 4 May the UK announced an initial £5 million allocation which will help to provide urgent assistance to tens of thousands of refugees and returnees in South Sudan and Chad fleeing violence in Sudan. The UK is a committed donor in Sudan, having spent over £250 million in humanitarian aid in the last five years.

Members: Correspondence

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when he plans to reply to the urgent letter of 24 April 2023 from the hon. Member for Stockport on behalf of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Zimbabwe.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: We have received the correspondence of 24 April and response has been sent on 4 May.

Sub-Saharan Africa: HIV Infection

Carol Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support efforts to detect and treat HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK remains a world leader in efforts to end the global AIDS epidemic and funds all key partners in the global AIDS response, including the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), World Health Organization, Unitaid and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as well as the Robert Carr Fund.Our recent pledge of £1 billion to the Global Fund will help to save over 1 million lives, including by providing antiretroviral therapy for 1.8 million people and HIV counselling and testing for 48 million people. Our funding for the Robert Carr Fund and UNAIDS supports initiatives to empower local civil society and grassroots organisations, predominantly in the Global South, to increase access to HIV prevention, testing and care services.

Sudan: British Nationals Abroad

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps to help support British Citizens in Sudan who have been unable to reach airports in time for the evacuation flights.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The FCDO continues to run a 24/7 crisis response, and any British nationals in need of consular assistance should contact the FCDO. The final UK evacuation flight from Wadi Saeedna airfield departed on 30 April, following the successful evacuation of 2197 people. On 1 May we ran two evacuation flights to help British nationals to leave Port Sudan, and we have facilitated other people onto ships leaving for safe countries in the region. We continue to provide consular support to British nationals in Port Sudan and in neighbouring countries in the region.

Canada: British Nationals Abroad

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Canadian counterpart on the subject of frozen British pensions resident in Canada.

David Rutley: The Foreign Secretary has not had recent discussions with his Canadian counterpart on this issue.

Ministry of Defence

Sea King Helicopters: Exhaust Emissions

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 21 April 2023 to Question 177952 on Sea King Helicopters: Exhaust Emissions, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of conducting routine smouldering myeloma screening for former Sea King air crew and ground personnel.

Dr Andrew Murrison: As I advised the hon. Member in the answer that I gave on 21 April 2023 to Question 177952 there is not a simple test or surveillance procedure of reliably mass screening for any exhaust associated rare cancers over an extended time period.

Armoured Fighting Vehicles: Health and Safety

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 27 April 2023 to Question 181897 on Armoured Fighting Vehicles: Health and Safety, when (a) Defence Equipment and Support and (b) the Army last reviewed he safety of each in-service vehicle.

James Cartlidge: Derence Equipment and Support and the Army, along with subject matter experts, jointly review the safety of our armoured vehicles on a regular basis. The specified period between safety reviews for armoured vehicles is defined in the Land System Safety Regulator's Land System Safety and Environmental Protection Defence Codes of Practice. The last review for each armoured vehicle is as follows:PlatformDate of Last Safety PanelPanther04/06/2022Snatch05/06/2022Foxhound19/06/2022RWIMIK28/06/2022Titan25/10/2022Viking23/11/2022Terrier08/12/2022Mastiff (all variants)26/01/2023Ridgeback26/01/2023Wolfhound26/01/2023Jackal/Coyote27/01/2023Warrior03/02/2023Multiple-Launch Rocket Systems13/02/2023Fuchs20/02/2023AS9009/03/2023AV43 Series (Bulldog)21/03/2023Trojan27/04/2023Challenger 203/05/2023CRARRV03/05/2023

Challenger Tanks

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the oral contribution by the Minister for the Armed Forces to the House of Commons Defence Select Committee on 8 March 2023, when his Department began cannibalising Challenger 2 tanks to sustain other platforms.

James Cartlidge: As a result of the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2010, the Ministry of Defence reduced the Challenger 2 fleet from 345 to 227, and a disposal programme was implemented. To ensure best value, components were salvaged from the Challenger 2 tanks as they went through the disposal process to assist with the sustainment of the remaining Challenger 2 fleet. This process began as the first tank entered the disposal line in 2013. The disposal programme was halted in 2014. Since then components have been removed from these tanks to sustain the current Challenger 2 fleet.

Army: Training

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to maintain levels of training and skill in the Army.

Dr Andrew Murrison: The Army invests significantly in skills, education and training for its people to build the problem-solving attributes, teamwork, resilience, intellect andcreativity needed to be successful now and in the future. A comprehensive professional pipeline trains soldiers and officers from the basics of being a soldier, through progressive levels of trade training, as well as the leadership skills required at all ranks. This through-career approach focuses on skills primacy and adaptability and is underpinned by a lifelong learning culture to afford the Army the strategic advantage it requires. The Army has in the region of 7,800 new soldier-apprentices starting every year. More broadly, Defence continues to invest in collective training capabilities for its Armed Forces and, under the Future Soldier programme, the Army is modernising collective training to better prepare for the challenges personnel will face in modern warfare.

Army: Employment

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many full-time Army personnel there is.

Dr Andrew Murrison: The Army’s Full-Time Trade Trained Strength was 75,710 as of 1 January 2023.

Military Bases

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the report by the National Audit Office entitled Optimising the defence estate, published on 11 June 2021, how many (a) personnel, (b) civil servants and (c) contractors were working on the defence estate optimisation portfolio in each job role as of 6 April 2023; and what the job description is for each of those roles.

James Cartlidge: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 2 May 2023 to Question 182492.

Veterans: Compensation

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department has spent on compensation via the (a) Armed Forces Compensation Scheme and (b) War Pensions scheme for serving former service personnel for hearing loss in each year since 2010.

Dr Andrew Murrison: The amounts spent on compensation via the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme and the War Pensions Scheme on individual conditions is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Veterans: Proof of Identity

Rachel Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many veteran ID cards have been distributed by local authority area as of 25 April 2023.

Dr Andrew Murrison: The attached excel spreadsheet details the breakdown of Veterans ID cards issued upon discharge within each local authority since its creation in December 2018.Veterans ID cards; Local authority distribution (xlsx, 34.9KB)

Sea King Helicopters: Exhaust Emissions

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 21 April 2023 to Question 177953 on Sea King Helicopters: Exhaust Emissions, how many open compensation claims against his Department there are relating to exposure of Sea King helicopter exhaust fumes.

Dr Andrew Murrison: There are currently four open compensation claims.

Sea King Helicopters: Exhaust Emissions

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 21 April 2023 to Question 177953 on Sea King Helicopters: Exhaust Emissions, how many compensation claims against the Ministry of Defence for health issues relating to Sea King helicopters since 1 January 2021 were settled prior to being formally issued.

Dr Andrew Murrison: There have been no compensation claims against the Ministry of Defence for health issues relating to Sea King helicopters since 1 January 2021 that were settled prior to a claim form being issued.

Apache AH-64 helicopters: Guided Weapons

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department plans to acquire the APKWS II laser-guided rocket system for the Army Air Corps fleet of AH-64E Apaches.

James Cartlidge: Yes, the Department is holding advanced discussions with the US Government with a view to procuring the APKWS II laser-guided rocket system for the AH-64E.

Veterans: Proof of Identity

Rachel Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many complaints his Department received about the rollout of Veteran ID cards in (a) 2020, (b) 2021, and (c) 2022.

Dr Andrew Murrison: Complaints can be made about any aspect of existing services provided by Defence Business Services. Since 2018 Veterans ID cards have been issued to Service leavers and a project is currently underway to deliver a new digital verification service for veterans which will enable the issuing of Veterans ID cards to those who left prior to 2018. Four formal complaints have been received relating to the issue of Veterans ID cards as follows:  2019-202020-212021-222022-23Service Leavers post 20180002Pre 2018 Veterans0020

Veterans: Proof of Identity

Rachel Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department has spent on the rollout of veteran ID cards up to 28 April 2023.

Rachel Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many civil servants from his Department (a) in total and (b) in full-time equivalent posts are allocated to work on the rollout of veteran ID cards.

Rachel Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) in total and (b) full-time equivalent staff in his Department are working on the rollout of Veteran ID cards.

Dr Andrew Murrison: Since 2018, Veterans ID cards have been issued to all Service leavers; the cost of this is not separately recorded. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) project team responsible for developing and implementing the new digital verification service and issue of ID cards for Veterans who left service prior to 2018 consists of seven civil servants and four contractors in total, equating to approximately 3.8 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) civil servants and 2.2 FTE contractors. This number will fluctuate during the current financial year (FY) depending on skills requirements.The MOD has allocated £1.5 million to the project for FY 2023-24. Expenditure of £1.07 million in FY 2022-23 was funded by the Cabinet Office when the project was led by the Office of Veterans Affairs.

Defence

Mr Mark Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will publish the refreshed Defence Command Paper.

Mr Ben Wallace: On 13 March 2023, the Government published the Integrated Review Refresh. Following publication of the IR Refresh, I have commissioned a refresh of the 2021 Defence Command Paper. It is expected to be published in June.

Sudan: Military Aircraft

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many 9a) C-130J Hercules, (b) Atlas A400M and (c) Voyager transport planes have been involved in operations to evacuate UK nationals from Sudan since 23 April 2023.

James Heappey: Since 23 April 2023, we have utilised a combination of three A400M Atlas and four C-130J Hercules airframes on operations conducting shuttles between Sudan and the Republic of Cyprus to evacuate UK nationals.No Voyager airframes have been used in the evacuation operations. No military airframes have been used to take UK Eligible Persons from Cyprus to the UK.

Nigeria: Arms Trade

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that arms transfers to Nigeria remain with the intended recipients and not diverted to non-state actors.

James Cartlidge: The Government reviews all licence applications for the export of UK-manufactured military and dual-use equipment against the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria, including an assessment of any risk that the items will be diverted to an undesirable end-user or for an undesirable end-use. In addition, the UK ensures its arms exports are compliant with the Arms Trade Treaty, and international restrictions, such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) convention on small arms and light weapons.

Defence Equipment & Support: Staff

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 25 April 2023 to Question 181899 on Defence Equipment and Support: Staff, what the average length of time was the Defence Equipment and Support employed contractors for since 2010.

James Cartlidge: The average length of time for which contractors have been engaged is not a standard measurement criterion for Defence Equipment and Support. Therefore, the information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Armed Forces: Employment

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what criteria his Department uses to determine decisions on levels of Armed Forces personnel staffing.

James Heappey: The Ministry of Defence regularly assesses the levels of personnel staffing and force structure across the Armed Forces. Through an adaptive approach, personnel numbers and force design are determined to ensure Defence remains threat-led and the Armed Forces remain ready to deter and defend the nation should they be called upon to do so.In line with the agile planning and delivery mechanisms developed following the Integrated Review and reaffirmed by the Integrated Review Refresh, Defence will continue to review our capabilities and readiness levels accordingly.

Armed Forces

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of setting personnel levels in the armed forces at 73,000 on the UK’s ability to provide military support to Ukraine.

James Heappey: The Ministry of Defence is reviewing whether it is now right to reduce the Regular Army to 73,000, as planned under Future Soldier. That process is ongoing.Defence is unwavering in its commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and our enduring military support to Ukraine.Any specific policy changes or updates required related to defence capability and force design will be determined once the update to the Defence Command Paper has concluded.

Military Aid: Public Sector

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many troops have been assigned to support public services in need of extra assistance in the past 12 months.

James Heappey: Since 1 May 2022, there has been approximately 6,800 instances of Service personnel being assigned to support Military Aid to the Civil Authorities (MACA) taskings. An individual Service person may have been used in support of multiple MACA requests from different Government Departments. This is the total of all current on-going and completed MACA taskings.

First Aviation Brigade: Deployment

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he expects the First Aviation Brigade to reach full operating capability.

James Heappey: 1st Aviation Brigade Combat Team (BCT) has been at full operating capability since 1 April 2023.

Defence Equipment & Support: Pay

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 2 May 2023 to Question 182779 on Defence Equipment & Support: Pay, what commercial delivery partners his Department pays to contract staff to work at Defence Equipment and Support.

James Cartlidge: Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) currently has direct contracts for the provision of contractor staff with the following delivery partners:Aurora Engineering PartnershipEquinox Joint VentureGrant ThorntonParagon Joint VentureIn addition, DE&S draws on the Crown Commercial Services framework contract with Alexander Mann Solutions and may, on occasion, use other specialist resourcing arrangements on a case-by-case basis.

Royal Fleet Auxiliary

Ian Mearns: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the Royal Fleet Auxiliary’s total annual expenditure was on vessel maintenance, including unscheduled work in each year since 2010.

Ian Mearns: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the (a) duration and (b) value of vessel maintenance contracts were signed by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary in each year since 2010.

James Cartlidge: The table below sets out the total annual expenditure, by financial year, of vessel maintenance/refits including unscheduled repair costs to Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels between 2010 and 2022. Financial YearRepair costs (including unscheduled repairs) (£million)Refit cost (£million)2010-111.82938.7172011-121.28318.8532012-131.77075.4592013-142.05580.8202014-1512.99488.8872015-167.61759.9412016-178.70424.2292017-188.35081.3792018-194.83049.6092019-207.54364.5702020-219.76060.5132021-2211.92468.602 A breakdown of repair costs into those that were scheduled and unscheduled could be provided only at a disproportionate cost. Royal Fleet Auxiliary managed vessels are presently maintained under the Future In-Service Support (FISS) agreement. These contracts were signed in 2018, have a duration of 10 years, are worth approximately £1.1 billion and are expected to deliver around £115 million of savings. Prior to the signature of the FISS agreement, RFA managed vessels were managed under a set of five In-Service Support contracts. These contracts were awarded in 2008 and renewed in 2012 for a further five-year period at an additional cost of £349 million.

Royal Fleet Auxiliary

Ian Mearns: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the sea-going status is of Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels; and which of those ships are (a) operationally available, (b) undergoing maintenance or a refit and (c) temporarily unavailable due to mechanical problems.

James Cartlidge: The information requested is as follows and is accurate as of 3 May 2023. ‘Available’ is defined as ships not undergoing deep maintenance. ClassNot AvailableAvailableTotalRFA Tide Class Tanker134RFA Wave Class Tanker202RFA Landing Ship Docks033RFA Amphibious Support Ship011RFA Fort Class Multi-Purpose Auxiliary011 The normal operating cycle of every ship involves them entering different readiness levels depending on their programmes, periods of refit and Departmental planning requirements. To maintain operational security, these figures cannot be broken down into any further level of detail.

Department for Transport

Motorways: Safety

Louise Haigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 28 April 2023 to Question 182337 on Motorways: Safety, how much and what proportion of the (a) £21.9 million on planning and (b) £37.4 million on design of those cancelled smart motorway schemes was spent in each of the financial years between 2010-11and 2022-23.

Mr Richard Holden: The following table identifies the annual breakdown of the spending on planning and design, for the 11 paused (now cancelled) schemes.  Planning*Design*2015/160.1 2016/170.7 2017/184.1 2018/198.7 2019/204.50.62020/211.212.12021/222.319.82022/230.34.9 *All values in £ million

Roads: Accidents

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many deaths from road traffic accidents there were in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield, (c) London in each year since 2017.

Mr Richard Holden: The number of deaths in reported road traffic collisions from 2017 to 2021 (the most recent year for which figures are available) are shown in the table. Caution should be attached to the interpretation of these figures due to the small numbers which vary annually, and the impact of Covid.  20172018201920202021Enfield North16220Borough of Enfield108530London1311121259675

Department for Transport: Training

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the guidance his Department uses for diversity network events which require checks on external speakers prior to inviting them to participate in Civil Service events.

Jesse Norman: The Department ensures that external events are organised in line with the Civil Service Code’s principles of political impartiality.

Driverless Vehicles

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions his Department has had with Tesla on its timescales for developing its autopilot software from beta to full self-driving.

Jesse Norman: Only vehicles listed under the Automated and Electric Vehicles Act 2018 are considered to be capable of safely driving themselves under certain circumstances, and are therefore able to be legally used without supervision on roads in Great Britain. There are currently no such vehicles listed. Tesla’s Autopilot software is considered to fall under the category of being an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), as it is not able to drive itself without any monitoring by an individual. The Department has not had any specific discussions with Tesla about their systems being considered for listing as self-driving.

Clean Air Zones: Exhaust Emissions

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the percentage reduction in (a) emissions of oxides of nitrogen and (b) concentrations of nitrogen dioxide at roadsides with Clean Air Zones (i) Class A, (ii) Class B, (iii) Class C and (iv) Class D in a city without a Clean Air Zone in 2022

Jesse Norman: Different Clean Air Zone types have been used in Local Authorities due to the differing requirements and starting points in regard to their fleet composition and air quality conditions. As a result, it is not possible to make a direct comparison between different CAZs.

Roads: Accidents

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many deaths from road traffic accidents there were in (a) East Midlands, (b) East of England, (c) Greater London, (d) North East, (e) North West, (f) South East, (g) South West, (h) West Midlands, (i) Yorkshire and the Humber and (j) England in each year since 2017.

Mr Richard Holden: The number of reported road collision fatalities in England broken down by region between 2017 and 2021 (the latest year for which figures are available) can be found via the link below. A breakdown of collisions and casualties by country and region is published as part of the Department’s reported road casualty statistics in table RAS0402: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1106315/ras0402.ods

Alternative Fuels: Research

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress his Department has made on the research and development of (a) hydrogen fuel and (b) other alternative fuels to petrol and diesel.

Jesse Norman: Research and development funding for hydrogen focusses on demonstrating proven applications at scale and driving innovation. The Department for Transport supports the Tees Valley Hydrogen Transport Hub, which is co-locating hydrogen supply and demand across proven road, maritime and aviation applications. The Department’s £200m zero emission HGV demonstrator programme will deploy hundreds of vehicles onto UK roads. In addition, the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK SHORE), Advanced Fuels Fund (including Sustainable Aviation Fuels), Zero Emission Flight Infrastructure project and First of a Kind funding in rail continue to support the development of innovative transport solutions here in the UK. The Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation now includes a higher value “development fuel” target and synthetic “drop-in” alternatives to fossil petrol and diesel fuels, such as e-fuels “are eligible for this support when supplied in the UK.

Active Travel: Finance

Mary Glindon: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of meeting the 2025 and 2030 objectives for his department’s Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy; and how much (a) ringfenced and (b) non-ringfenced funding his Department has made available for that Strategy (i) at the time it was published and (ii) as of 27 April 2023.

Jesse Norman: The second Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS2) estimates that over £3 billion will be invested in active travel between 2021/22 to 2024/5 from a range of ring-fenced and non-ring-fenced funds. This includes at least £100 million of ringfenced capital funding for active travel which will be provided over the two-year period 2023/24 to 2024/25, on top of £850 million of dedicated funding over the previous three-year period. It also includes estimates for City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) (£700m), Levelling Up Fund (£576m), Future High Streets Fund (£289m), Towns Fund (£293m) and National Highways Designated Funds (£90m). An update on estimates across all funds included within CWIS2 will be published in the next CWIS Report to Parliament. Funding decisions for the third Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS3) period will be subject to decisions made at the next Spending Review.

Driverless Vehicles

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department’s policies of reports of phantom braking by Tesla vehicles when operated in autopilot mode.

Mr Richard Holden: The Department has not identified any issues of phantom braking affecting the UK specification of Tesla vehicles when operating with their Autopilot feature. Therefore, the Department’s polices with respect to such technology remain unchanged.

Cars: Sales

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has published an impact assessment of the potential impact of the proposed ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 on rural communities.

Mr Richard Holden: A consultation on the proposed design of the ZEV mandate was published on 30 March 2023, and was accompanied by a full cost benefit analysis. This consultation proposes, among other areas, proposed ZEV uptake trajectories to 2030. Targets and requirements from 2030 will be the subject of additional consultation and legislation in due course and will also be accompanied by a cost benefit analysis.

Mode Shift Revenue Support Scheme

Gavin Newlands: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of amending the zonal boundaries and eligibility for grant support for intra-zonal freight movements within the Mode Shift Revenue Support Scheme.

Gavin Newlands: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with representatives of the European Commission on the operation of the Mode Shift Revenue Support Scheme.

Mr Richard Holden: A review of the Mode Shift Revenue Support (MSRS) scheme, which runs until 31 March 2025, will commence soon. This review will consider all aspects of the scheme, including zonal boundaries. The current scheme operates under the EU State Aid regime, so any amendments have to be made in line with this legal framework. However, the revised scheme would be governed by the UK’s independent state aid regime, enabling greater flexibility with the design of the scheme.

Railway Stations: Access

Afzal Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has had recent discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on funding for the CP7 access for all programme.

Huw Merriman: The Department is currently assessing over 300 stations nominated for Access for All funding beyond 2024. I hope to be in a position to announce successful projects and the funding available later this year.

Motor Vehicles: UK Trade with EU

Claire Hanna: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of EU regulation 2019/2144 on the purchasing and selling of vehicles from the UK into the European Single Market; and whether he plans to adopt proposals similar to that regulation into UK law.

Mr Richard Holden: UK manufacturers selling their products into the EU must ensure their vehicles are approved to the relevant EU regulations, including the technical requirements laid out in Regulation (EU) 2019/2144. Vehicle standards are kept under review and a decision will be taken in due course as to whether to introduce any of the relevant technologies in Great Britain as part of our wider programme to modernise vehicle standards.

Diesel Vehicles

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many diesel cars were registered in each region of England in (a) 2016 and (b) 2022.

Jesse Norman: The number of diesel cars registered for the first time in regions in England during 2016 and 2022 (to 30 September) is outlined below: Region 20162022 (to 30 September)East Midlands94,3578,285East of England130,3189,190London68,8414,225North East34,4033,148North West104,32913,108South East288,85618,712South West136,6389,160West Midlands170,9799,508Yorkshire and the Humber95,6858,290 Source: DfT Statistics based on DVLA data.

Diesel Vehicles

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on how many diesel cars were registered in each region of England by each decile of income in 2021.

Jesse Norman: The number of diesel cars registered for the first time in regions in England during 2021 is set out below: Region 2021East Midlands17,427East of England16,714London7,595North East5,423North West25,114South East41,138South West20,248West Midlands16,744Yorkshire and the Humber15,146 Source: DfT Statistics based on DVLA data. It is not possible to directly link income levels to vehicle registrations.

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

Students: Cost of Living

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 27 April 2023 to Question 182401 on Students: Cost of Living, if he will make an estimate of the number of landlords in the private rented sector who passed on energy price support to tenants.

Amanda Solloway: No such estimate has been made. Landlords who pay for their tenants’ energy costs must pass on the financial discount they have received from the Government’s energy support schemes, for example, where a landlord charges their tenant an all-inclusive monthly payment that consists of rent and energy costs.

Fuel Poverty: Enfield North

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what estimate his Department has made of the number of families in fuel poverty living in Enfield North constituency.

Amanda Solloway: The latest statistics for the number of households in fuel poverty in parliamentary constituencies in England can be found in the published sub-regional fuel poverty Official Statistics.

Fuel Poverty: Stockport

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if his Department will make an estimate of the number of families in fuel poverty in Stockport constituency in the latest period for which figures are available.

Amanda Solloway: The latest statistics for the number of households in fuel poverty in parliamentary constituencies in England can be found in the published sub-regional fuel poverty Official Statistics.

Oil: Pollution

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make it her policy to increase the penalties on oil producers who spill oil routinely into UK waters.

Graham Stuart: Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning (OPRED) monitors offshore oil spills in UK waters as part of its regulatory process. OPRED takes necessary action on identification of all oil spills in line with its enforcement policy, including the use of penalties, which can be increased in cases where previous or repeated breaches have occurred.

Energy Company Obligation

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what proportion of houses assessed for upgrades under (a) ECO3 and (b) ECO4 were eligible to meet the requirements of that scheme.

Graham Stuart: The Government does not carry out assessments for house upgrades, nor hold data on the number of assessments carried out by suppliers or installers. While Government sets the eligibility requirements for ECO, the decision on which measures to install and to whom are made by the energy suppliers or installers. These parties may base their assessment on the suitability of the homes from a practical perspective and the cost effectiveness of installing there. Under ECO3, 1,117,900 measures were installed in around 597,800 unique households. It is estimated that around 800,000 measures in 450,000 homes will be delivered under ECO4.

Energy Company Obligation

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he has made a comparative assessment of the cost assumptions for the ECO4 scheme with those set out in the Great British Insulation scheme consultation; if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of uprating the cost assumptions for the ECO4 scheme; and if he will make a statement.

Graham Stuart: The Government is monitoring the delivery of ECO4 against the current cost assumptions and will consider changes if necessary. Changing the cost assumptions may require either a change to the overall energy bill reduction target, the estimated funding, policy details of the scheme, or a combination of all three. Such changes would require public consultation and regulatory change.

Energy Company Obligation

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department has set a target for the average number of energy efficiency installations under the ECO4 scheme; how many have been installed on average in each month since July 2022; and if he will make a statement.

Graham Stuart: The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero expects that 800,000 measures in around 450,000 homes will be delivered under ECO4. Information on the number of energy efficiency measures installed monthly in homes through ECO4 since July 2022 can be found in the Household Energy Efficiency statistics by visiting https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/household-energy-efficiency-national-statistics.

Energy Company Obligation

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will publish a monthly breakdown of the number of (a) installations and (b) homes with energy efficiency measures under ECO4.

Graham Stuart: The monthly breakdown of energy efficiency measures installed under ECO4 is published in the Household Energy Efficiency Statistics, which can be found by visiting: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/household-energy-efficiency-statistics-headline-release-april-2023.

Hydrogen: Heating

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 24 April 2023 to Question 180587 on Hydrogen: Heating, whether his Department’s criteria for deciding whether to enable the blending of hydrogen in the existing gas distribution network includes the potential impact of that decision on consumer bills.

Graham Stuart: Protecting consumers is a top priority for the Government, which is why it has covered around half of the typical household’s energy bill this winter. Value for money will be a key factor in determining whether to enable the roll-out of blending into the gas network. The Government is working closely with Ofgem and industry to explore how hydrogen could be fairly incorporated in bills and any final decision on blending will be made alongside a decision on how best to protect consumers.

Alternative Fuel Payments

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 2 May 2023 to Question 182699 on Alternative Fuel Payments, whether the guidance to suppliers included directions on payments to (a) potential and (b) existing (i) second and (ii) holiday homes.

Amanda Solloway: The guidance does not include any specific detail regarding second homes and holiday homes.

Energy Bills Discount Scheme

Dave Doogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, when his Department plans to provide funding for eligible businesses through the energy and trade intensive industries scheme.

Amanda Solloway: Eligible organisations will have 90 days from the scheme introduction date of 26 April 2023 to apply for the higher support of the Energy Bills Discount Scheme. New organisations or newly eligible organisations will have 90 days to apply from the date at which they become eligible. Once eligibility has been determined, support will be backdated to the 1st April 2023.

Energy: Prices

Tonia Antoniazzi: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact of the level of energy prices in the UK relative to those in European countries on the UK's international competitiveness.

Amanda Solloway: Gas prices for industrial users in the UK are typically among the cheapest in Europe. However, the UK’s industrial electricity prices are higher than those of other comparable countries, in part reflecting how the UK has spread electricity infrastructure costs more evenly between industry and households compared to other European countries. Recognising potential implications on industrial competitiveness, the Government announced in February that approximately 300 businesses across the UK will benefit from the British Industry Supercharger: targeted measures to ensure energy costs for key UK industries are in line with other major economies. Prices data are published at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/international-energy-price-comparisons.

Energy Bill Relief Scheme and Energy Bills Discount Scheme

Tonia Antoniazzi: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact on businesses of the replacement of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme by the Energy Bill Discount Scheme.

Amanda Solloway: The review of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme assessed a range of qualitative and quantitative evidence from businesses and stakeholders on sectors that may be most affected by rising energy prices based on energy and trade intensity. The results were used alongside results from a BEIS business survey, inputs from Government departments, wider economic and public policy considerations. The outcome of the review informed the criteria used to determine eligibility for the Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS). The EBDS reflects the scale of change in the energy market since last September and strikes the right balance by supporting businesses over the next year, ensuring fiscal responsibility and limiting the taxpayer’s exposure to volatile energy markets.

Heating: Fossil Fuels

Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, when his Department plans to respond to the consultations on phasing out new and replacement fossil fuel heating systems for off gas grid properties launched in October 2021 by the then Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy; and what discussions he has had with his counterparts in the Welsh Government on those consultations.

Graham Stuart: The Government is carefully considering the feedback received and will publish its responses to the consultations on phasing out fossil fuel heating systems for off gas grid homes, businesses and public buildings in due course. The consultations apply to England only as this is a devolved matter. However, Government officials have engaged with their counterparts in the Welsh Government when designing the policy.

Renewable Energy: Prices

Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department has taken recent steps to decouple the cost of renewable energy from gas prices; and whether his Department plans to publish a consultation on (a) the split markets model, (b) the green power pool and (c) other options for splitting the gas and renewables markets.

Graham Stuart: Through the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA) programme, the Government is considering a range of options to shield consumers from the impacts of potential future commodity price spikes and ensure they benefit from lower cost renewables. The first REMA consultation included the ‘split market’ and ‘green power pool’ models. As detailed in the summary of responses, these options remain under consideration. The intention is to publish a second consultation in Autumn 2023. The CfD scheme already insulates consumers against electricity price spikes. Over time this will significantly reduce dependence on gas-fired generation, lowering exposure to gas prices.

Biofuels: Sustainable Development

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the Ofgem's levels of reliance on (a) the Sustainable Biomass Programme and (b) other industry certification schemes to  independently assess an organisation's compliance with UK Biomass Sustainability Rules.

Graham Stuart: The Government has made no such assessment.

Women and Equalities

Sexual Harassment: Employment

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of sexual harassment in workplaces in England in the last 12 months.

Maria Caulfield: The Equality Hub does not actively collect data on the prevalence of sexual harassment in the workplace in England. External data collection and media reports have shown that sexual harassment remains a persistent, prevalent problem across the country, and particularly in our workplaces. In 2021 a poll by the TUC found that around 7 in 10 disabled women surveyed had been sexually harassed at work, for example. The Government is committed to tackling sexual harassment in the workplace, to make sure that people feel safe and supported to thrive. In July 2021, as part of our strategy to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls, the Government committed to a new package of measures. This includes supporting the Equality and Human Rights Commission to develop a statutory Code of Practice, preparing our own practical guidance for employers, as well as two legislative commitments to strengthen protections for those affected by harassment at work.

Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what recent discussions she has had with the Leader of the House on the Parliamentary timetable for the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill.

Maria Caulfield: The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill is a Private Member’s Bill. As the Bill is now in the Other Place, scheduling is a matter for the Lords Chief Whip. My officials and I are in regular contact with the Lords and Commons Whips offices in relation to this Bill.

Equal Pay: Disclosure of Information

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a requirement for employers to disclose staff salary bands in the context of gender pay gap reporting.

Maria Caulfield: The government has considered the merits of making disclosure of staff salary pay bands a requirement in this context, including the impact on women and those from ethnic minorities. However, since some employers may find it challenging to be fully transparent about pay, and the issues many organisations would face moving immediately to a system of full pay transparency, we do not believe that introducing a legal requirement to disclose this information is the right course of action.

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

Copyright: Arts

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 25 April 2023 to Question 181745 on Copyright: Arts, if she will publish the dates and times of meetings between her Department and representatives from the creative industries on text and data mining since 1 February 2023.

George Freeman: The information requested is not held centrally and can only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Copyright: Arts

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 25 April 2023 to Question 181745 on Copyright: Arts, if she will publish a list of the names of representatives of the creative industries that her Department has met with since 1 February 2023 to discuss text and data mining.

George Freeman: The Department has met the Alliance for IP; the British Copyright Council and members; The News Media Agency and News Licensing Association and members; and the Copyright Clearance Center. As diary information is not held centrally, it is not possible to determine whether this is a definitive list without disproportionate cost.

Wales Office

Sewage and Water: Wales

Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, for what reason the provisions of section 48(1) of the Wales Act 2017 have not been brought into force.

David T C Davies: Following the Wales Act 2017, DEFRA and the Welsh Government established a joint programme of work to consider the legislative and practical implications of commencing section 48(1) which would realign the Senedd’s competence over water with the national border of Wales. In 2020, both governments agreed to postpone this work as resources were reprioritised to our response to the Covid-19 pandemic and a timetable has yet to be set for commencing section 48(1) of the 2017 Act.

Attorney General

Climate Change: Protest

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 30 March 2023 to Question 174192 on Climate Change: Protest, what information her Department holds on (a) disciplinary or (b) other consequences for advocates used by the Crown Prosecution Service who do not comply with the cab rank principle; and if she will make a statement.

Michael Tomlinson: Non-compliance with the standards of conduct set out in the Bar Standards Board (BSB) Handbook is a matter for the BSB. The CPS does not hold any information on non-compliance with the cab rank principle by advocates it has sought to instruct. Furthermore, upon review, the CPS has confirmed that none of the signatories of the “Lawyers Are Responsible” declaration are current members of the CPS Advocate Panel or non-Panel advocates instructed by the CPS, such as King’s Counsel.